Clinical and electrodiagnostic follow-up of an adolescent poisoned with thallium.

We report a six-year clinical and electrodiagnos-tic follow-up of an adolescent patient with acute thallium poisoning from attempted suicide. During the acute stage the patient showed gastrointestinal disturbances, alopecia, and clinical and electrodiagnostic signs of severe polyneu-ropathy. Three years after poisoning, his neurological symptomatology was making progress, and electrophysio-logic signs of peripheral neuropathy were mainly confined to lower limbs. Six years after intoxication, he was still complaining of weakness and sensory disturbances at the level of distal lower extremities; his neurologic and elec-trodiagnostic abnormalities affected mainly the feet. In this case report we underline the importance of early diagnosis and treatment to prevent neurological damage and the role of serial electromyographic and nerve conduction studies in thallium poisoning. These investigations allowed the authors to depict the electrophysiologic course of peripher-al nervous system involvement over six years following poisoning