M. Yoshida et al., CONCENTRATIONS OF TRICHLOROETHYLENE AND ITS METABOLITES IN BLOOD AND URINE AFTER ACUTE-POISONING BY INGESTION, Human & experimental toxicology, 15(3), 1996, pp. 254-258
A 58-year-old man fell into a trichloroethylene reservoir bath head fi
rst, during a maintenance degreasing bath and accidentally ingested th
e solvent. Although he showed deep coma, chemical burns and pneumonia
on admission, these symptoms gradually subsided. The concentrations of
trichloroethylene (TRI) and its metabolites, trichloroethanol (TCE) a
nd trichloroacetic acid (TCA) in blood and urine were measured during
hospitalization. Eight hours after the accident, the concentrations of
TRI and its metabolites in serum were 31.4 mu g/ml TRI, 16.5 mu g/ml
TCE and 79,5 mu g/ml TCA. The serum TRI concentration decreased to 4.3
mu g/ml on the following day. Elimination of TCE and TCA from serum o
ccurred biphasically, the estimated half-lives of each metabolites bei
ng about 52.6 and 50.4 h in an initial fast phase and 268.3 and 277.2
h in a subsequent slow phase, respectively. Urinary TRI excretion pers
isted for the first 2 days. The urinary TCE and TCA excretions were lo
nger than that of TRI with a biphasic decrease and the total amount of
TCE excreted during the first 2 days was about two times that of TCA.
The half-life of urinary TCE excretion (t(1/2) 25.7 h) was shorter th
an that of TCA (t(1/2) 52.1 h) in the fast phase but did no difference
during the slow phase, with each half-time being about 166.3 h. The k
inetics of TRI metabolites in blood and urine in this case were in sli
ght agreement with the results following inhalation exposure previousl
y reported in the literature.