ACUTE SELENIUM POISONING

Reports of acute human selenium toxicity are rare. We report 2 new cas es. One patient ingested a mouthful of selenic acid (30 g/L); he only suffered mild gastrointestinal disturbances. Serial measurements of pl asma selenium concentrations were performed. The first plasma level wa s obtained 3 h after ingestion and was the highest (931 mu g/L); plasm a concentrations subsequently decreased with a half-life of 17.5 h. Th e second patient ingested 1.7 g of sodium selenite. He suffered Severe gastroenteritis, had transient electrocardiographic changes and devel oped a slight elevation of serum bilirubin. The first serum concentrat ion measurement was performed 3 h after ingestion; the selenium level was 2,716 mu g/L. These data are compared to those from other publishe d cases. The prognostic significance of the blood selenium concentrati on is discussed.