Paraquat poisoning in a family

A Familial occurrence of acute paraquat (PQ) poisoning is reported. The mot her administered a PQ solution to their 3 children aged 8 y, 6 y and 15 mo and then ingested an unknown amount of the herbicide herself in the absence of history or diagnostic signs, the poisoning was initially misdiagnosed a s gastroenteritis. Thirty h after the ingestions, serum PQ concentrations o f the children were 60, <6 and 25 ng/ml respectively. Hemoperfusion was per formed on all patients, and 2 of the children also received plasmapheresis and erythropheresis. The 3 children recovered fully but the mother died. Ac cording to these patients' data, the extracorporeal techniques had little e ffect on PQ removal, and the decreases in serum PQ were related to its urin ary excretion.