HYPERTENSIVE ENCEPHALOPATHY INDUCED BY MERCURY POISONING; A REPORT OF 3 CASES (IN AN IRANIAN FAMILY)

ObjectiveMercury poisoning is one of the important recent causes of mortality and mortality in children worldwide, particularly in industrial environments; mercury is a poisonous metal, especially harmful to the nervous and immune systems and the kidneys and can even be fatal. Elemental mercury is present in thermometers, barometer batteries, sphygmomanometers and latex paints.Inorganic mercury salts are found in antiseptics, pesticides, pigments and explosives and are used as preservatives in medicine. Mercury was once used to stop fever, and this worked because the immune system was so weakened that it could no longer sustain the attack for which the fever was created. Some medical drugs still contain mercury chloride and mercurous chloride and certain forms of mercury are still used in some laxatives. Mercury toxicity of the nervous system causes anorexia, ataxia, lack of ability to coordinate voluntary muscle movements, dementia, depression, dizziness, emotional instability, erethism (abnormal irritability in response to stimulation), incoordination, insomnia, irritability, loss of ability to speak, memory impairment, numbness, saresthesias (sensation of prickling, tingling or creeping on the skin), psychosis, tremors, drowsiness, fatigue and weakness.Other organ damages include kidney failure, headaches, hearing impairment, visual impairment, hypertension, dermatitis, digestive tract problems, colitis, diarrhea, stomatitis and excessive salivation, loss of teeth, metallic taste, chromosomal damage, birth defects and ensuing organ failure. Chronic mercury poisoning can cause Acrodynia (Pink disease). Mercury poisoning is a rare cause of hypertension in children. Herein we report 3 cases, the first a child with hypertensive encephalopathy due to severe mercury poisoning and his two siblings with moderate symptoms.Case reportA 10 year old boy was admitted in psychiatric ward of Imam Hossein Hospital with behavioral disorder, irritability, mood change and convulsion. Because of his blood pressure which was 160/120 he was referred and admitted to the Pediatric Nephrology department. On arrival, for his hypotonia and the pink  discoloration of his fingers a diagnosis of Acrodynia (Pink disease) was considered; his history showed that he has played with a ball of mercury, taken from a laboratory. He and his 2 siblings received British Anti Lewisite(BAL) and D-penicillamin; at follow-up all symptoms had gradually disappeared and they are well now.Keywords:Mercury poisoning, Children, Renal complications, Hypertensive encephalopath

Global, regional, and national burden of colorectal cancer and its risk factors, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Funding: F Carvalho and E Fernandes acknowledge support from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT), in the scope of the project UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 of the Research Unit on Applied Molecular Biosciences UCIBIO and the project LA/P/0140/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy i4HB; FCT/MCTES through the project UIDB/50006/2020. J Conde acknowledges the European Research Council Starting Grant (ERC-StG-2019-848325). V M Costa acknowledges the grant SFRH/BHD/110001/2015, received by Portuguese national funds through Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), IP, under the Norma Transitória DL57/2016/CP1334/CT0006.proofepub_ahead_of_prin

Snudging cheapskates and magnificent profusion : the conceptual baggage of ‘mean’ and ‘generous’

The way people behave with money communicates a great deal about their character. In this chapter, we examine the ‘conceptual baggage’ (McConnell-Ginet, Language, 84(3), 497–527, 2008) for synonyms of ‘mean’ and ‘generous’. Drawing data from The Historical Thesaurus, we show that generosity is connected to positive assessments across a range of fields, including appearance, morality and space, while meanness is similarly widely disparaged. Drawing out the ideological connections between the lexical items and their cultural baggage, we argue that ‘wealth’ operates as a synonym for goodness, while ‘poverty’ functions as a synonym of badness. In order to challenge this, we suggest that attention be paid to ‘relative generosity’ and demonstrate how results from data analysis can be used to critically assess the prevailing economic orthodoxy