Acute thallotoxicosis: neuropathological and spectrophotometric studies on an autopsy case.

Acute thallotoxicosis has been studied in an autopsy case with characteristic neurological symptoms. Pathologic findings were composed of a rarefaction in cerebral white matter, swelling and fragmentation in peripheral nerve fibers and some chromatolytic changes in neurons of cranial nerves and spinal cord. Trace amounts of thallous salt were measured in the tissues from the brain, liver and kidney using spectrophotometric technique. The locus of thallium affection is assumed to be a mitochondrial membrane with a specific affinity to the thallous ion.