Nerve Conduction Studies in Chronic Arsenic Poisoning Patients
Soontorn Supapong MD, Msc*, Kammant Phanthumchinda MD**, Jiruth Srirattanaban MD, MBA, PhD*
Affiliation : * Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University ** Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University
Objective : To assess the nerve conduction functions among female patients with arsenical dermatoses compared with the controls.
Design : Cross-sectional analytic study.
Subjects and Method : Thirty females with skin lesions consistent with arsenical dermatoses and 27 controls who met the
inclusion criteria were investigated by nerve conduction functions. Case findings resulted from a house-to-house survey in
village12, Ronphibun subdistrict and village5, Saothong subdistrict, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, southern Thailand
in 1995.
Results : Differences between the arsenic-exposed population and the reference group regarding nerve conduction velocities
(NCVs), proximal and distal latencies and amplitudes of sensory and motor nerve action potentials were not found except
for the absent response to the sural nerve stimulation in three subjects of the exposed group.
Conclusion : The effects of arsenic toxicity on the peripheral nerves in the form of slow nerve conduction velocities were not
found among female patients with arsenical dermatoses in Ronphibun. Some patients might have experienced arsenic
neuropathy to some degree in the past (before 1987) but they had recovered to some degree at the time of the present
investigation (1996) as most of the patients with chronic arsenic poisoning in the present study changed their sources of
drinking water from arsenic-contaminated shallow-well water to other sources such as rainwater, tap water or commercial
bottled water.
Keywords : Arsenic, Arsenical dermatoses, Neuropathy, Ronphibun, Nerve conduction velocities, NCVs
