Carbon disulfide(CS₂), a clear colorless volatile fluid of sweetish aromatic odor, has been used in the process of viscose rayon synthesis, and known to be a neurotoxin and to cause atherogenesis in the vascular system.
The authers experienced and managed 13 patients, highly suspected of chronic CS₂ poisoning.
These patients were workers in viscose rayon industry for long years.
The results were as follows.
1. The mean age of total patients was 46.7±1.2 years old, 12 males and 1 female, and the mean duration of exposure was 15.4±0.6 years.
2. All patients had the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy, and the 9 cases had the symptoms of cranial nerve dysfunction.
3. The symptoms of the peripheral neuropathy were general weakness, weakness and paralysis of extremities, and the polyneuropathy was found at the 3 cases in EMG.
4. The symptoms of cranial nerve dysfuction were headache, dizziness, dysarthria, aphasia, memory disturbance, and furthermore. mental retardation, dementia in the severe cases, and the cortical atrophy of brain and cerebral infarction are found in the brain computed tomography in 5 cases of 9 patients.
5. There were cardiovascular diseases in 7 cases, hyperlipidemia in all cases and hypertension in 4 cases.
6. There were proteinuria in 5 patients and azotemia in the 4 patients.
7. Four patients had liver disease, and the other one had DM.
