[Generalized argyrosis]

Abstract

For many years a 52-year-old patient suffering from duodenal ulcer had taken a silver-containing preparation, the total quantity of silver ingested in this manner amounting to about 35 g. 18 years after the first manifestation of duodenal ulcer a dermatologist diagnosed argyria and confirmed this by biopsy. After acute coronary failure with marked nicotine abuse autopsy revealed granulated deposits of silver in the corium, particularly on elastic fibres, at the sweat glands, sebaceous glands and hair follicles. There were no deposits in the epidermis. Dense silver deposits were also seen in the walls of most of the blood vessels, in the basal membranes of the renal glomeruli, of the choroid plexus and of the seminiferous tubules, as well as in the portal fields. Definite intracellular deposits occurred in macrophages only. The metal was found only rarely in epithelial basal membranes. Generalised argyria does not entail any pathological implications and is considered to be intractable.