Overall prognosis of patients with diagnosed chronic organic solvent intoxication

Abstract

The prognosis of 87 patients (mean age 38.6 years) was examined who had been diagnosed 3-9 years earlier as having chronic organic solvent intoxication due to trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene, or a mixture of solvents. The methods comprised an interview, a clinical neurological examination, neurophysiological examinations (EEGs and electroneuromyographs), and a psychological examination. In order to assess the prognosis, the patient's condition at the time of diagnosis was evaluated from the hospital records, and the condition upon reexamination was compared to that at the time of diagnosis. At the time of diagnosis, 31 patients had objective clinical signs in the neurological examination, whereas the remaining 56 had only subjective symptoms and neurophysiological or psychological findings attributed to the slight solvent intoxication. Upon reexamination, 42 patients had clinical neurological signs. Based on the clinical overall evaluation, the condition of 21 patients had deteriorated during the follow-up period, the condition of 23 had improved, and that of 43 had remained unchanged. The prognoses of the results of the separate examinations correlated poorly with each other. No statistically significant correlation was found between the overall prognosis and age, sex, the duration and the level of exposure, the termination of exposure after diagnosis, the presence of other diseases, or the use of alcohol.