Document mBYbngOZEmEBx0G5MdKrbqM7O

!^g5f ABSTRACTS FROM CURRENT LITERATURE 109 BAL and Lead Poisoning: II. Effect on Blood Changes. Graziani, Folia med. 32:472, 1949. Giuseppe The animals receiving BAL showed only a slight reduction in red corpuscles, and in only half of the animals appeared a few basophil-stippled red cells. The controls showed a fully developed picture of lead poisoning. A. E. Meyer [Chem. Abstr.]. Experimental Research on Intoxication by Hexamethylenediamine. C. Ceresa and M. De Blasiis, Med. d. lavoro 41:78 (March) 1950. Experimental researches were made on 12 guinea pigs. Six were slowly intoxi cated orally with 2 eg. daily of hexamethylenediamine during a period of 20 to 95 days; three, subcutaneously with 1 eg. per day for a period of 50 to 64 days, and three, with 2 eg. per day; the latter dose killed the animals in a period of five to seven days. Diminution of weight, anemia of the hemolytic type with leukopenia, and, in the histological examinations, degenerative processes, were noted. These degenerative processes were particularly impressive in kidney and liver, less important in myocardium. Also noted were hemorrhagic spots in the adrenal glands and some necrotic foci in the mucosa, of the stomach and bowels. Hexa methylenediamine is therefore a poison capable of producing hemolytic processes. Anemia of the hemolytic type, noted by Ceresa in several workers employed in a nylon-fabricating factory, can be attributed, therefore, both to hexamethylene diamine and to crude adiponitrile, the hemolytic action of which had been shown by Ceresa in a previous work. Adaptation of Authors' Summary. Lead Poisoning in Workers Filing Automobiles. d. lavoro-41:86 (March) 1950. Enzo Barraso, Med. Several hundred workers employed in filing automobile bodies were periodically examined from 1946 to 1949, inclusive. Thirty-three cases of lead poisoning were encountered. The frequency of the symptoms was as follows: Anemia was present in all, with an average red corpuscle count of 3,200,00 and a hemoglobin content of 66 per cent (Sahli) ; increased coproporphyrinuria was present in 79 per cent; a lead line, in 61 per cent; stippling (more than 100:1,000,000), in 60 per cent; intestinal troubles, in 60 per cent; gastric troubles, in 49 per cent; constipation, in 45 per cent; lead color, in 33 per cent; lead colics, in 18 per cent; myalgia and arthralgia, in 12 per cent; lead hypertension, in 12 per cent; hyperthyroidism, in 9 per cent. One man showed lead palsy. The great dangerousness in filing bodies with grinding machines and rotating brushes is stressed. For prevention several technical measures are suggested, the most important of which is to discontinue the filing with mechanical means and go back to the system of filing by hand. Adaptation of Author's Summary. Investigations of the Red Blood Cell Picture in Chronic Action of Benzene and Its Homologues with Special Reference.to the Diameter of tiie Erythrocytes. . K. Humperdinck and A. Abler, Artzl. Forschung 3:117 (March 10)- 1949. Examinations of the blood of 20 intaglio printers were undertaken during the course of medical supervision. The ages ranged from 18 to 67, and the duration of employment, from six months to 19 years. The methods of measuring the blood corpuscles and hemoglobin are described. The conclusion is reached that the change in the diameter of the erythrocytes is an early reaction of the hemopoietic system to the chronic action of solvents containing benzene and its homologs. The leukocyte value in these cases did not show any striking-changes either