Suicidal poisoning with mercaptodimethur-morphological findings and toxicological analysis

Abstract

In the western countries, the number of fatal intoxications with plant protecting agents has decreased to some extent due to laws restricting the use of highly toxic pesticides like halogenated hydrocarbons. Nevertheless, in consideration of the easy availability of most plant protectants, the small fraction of such fatalities among suicides and intoxications is astonishing. An 80-year-old woman died of an intoxication with methiocarb (mercaptodimethur), a carbamate type pesticide and as such a reversible inhibitor of the acetylcholinesterase. The case is presented because it is the first explicit report on a fatal poisoning of a human with methiocarb. The methiocarb concentrations detected were 6,100 microg/g in stomach content, 4.0 microg/ml in heart blood, 11 microg/g in kidney, 1.9 microg/ml in urine, 25 microg/g in liver, 2 microg/g in bile and 2.5 microg/g in brain tissue.