This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Louis R. Caplan, MD; Nathaniel Katz, MD; Richard Scheife, DPharm; Jaime Rich, MD
Department of Neurology Tufts University 750 Washington St Boston, MA 02111

Arch Neurol. 1991;48(1):18.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In Reply.

—We agree with Dr Wrenn that identification of the specific offending alcohol is important in managing patients with acute intoxications. One purpose of our report was to alert readers to the laboratory findings in patients with acute isopropyl alcohol intoxication, a disorder that we believe is common, yet little appreciated. Unfortunately, many breathalyzer tests as well as a newly introduced "saliva alcohol dipstick" method¹ do not distinguish between alcohols. We agree with his comments about management of the acute intoxications, including generous administration of thiamine in these patients, many of whom also abuse ethanol and eat sparingly and poorly.

Among the intoxicant alcohols (ethanol, methanol, isopropyl alcohol, ethylene glycol) isopropyl alcohol and ethanol are the only ones that are repeatedly and deliberately ingested for prolonged periods. The chronic effects of isopropyl alcohol are thus important. We are pleased to know that Wrenn's neurological experience in emergency medicine . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?