ACUTE MERCURY-POISONING - DIFFICULTIES IN DIAGNOSIS

We describe a case of mercurialism in a thirteen years old boy who pre sented an erythematous-cyanotic rush on the estremities. Pain was the main symptom and no nervous or psychic alteration was observed. The ur inary Hg dosage revealed normal values while the plasmatic and hair le vels were increased ten and five fold respectively. Differential diagn osis was made with rheumatoid artritis, chronic urticaria, reflexed ne rvovascular dystrophy, hand-foot affective deprivation syndrome and es sential acrocyanosis.