Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Near Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, three of four adult family members who ate a porcupine fish (Diodon hystrix) were severely poisoned. Within one hour of the meal, both the mother and her older daughter had developed paraesthesiae, ataxia, hypersalivation, sweating, and had collapsed and died. The younger daughter developed similar symptoms with progressive paralysis requiring mechanical ventilation for 24 hr, but she made a complete recovery 10 days after the poisoning. In this patient, nerve conduction studies showed reduced sensory and motor conduction velocities and evoked amplitudes with gradual improvement in parallel with the patient's clinical condition, consistent with the known action of tetrodotoxin on voltage-gated sodium channels.

Type

Journal article

Journal

Am J Trop Med Hyg

Publication Date

01/1997

Volume

56

Pages

30 - 32

Keywords

Action Potentials, Adult, Animals, Bradycardia, Dogs, Electrocardiography, Electromyography, Female, Fishes, Poisonous, Foodborne Diseases, Humans, Muscle, Skeletal, Neural Conduction, Papua New Guinea, Tetrodotoxin