Bao, Lei and Li, Qing and Li, Qingjie and Chen, Hao and Zhang, Ruixue and Shi, Hongjuan and Cui, Guiyun (2020) Clinical, electrophysiological and radiological features of nitrous oxide-induced neurological disorders. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 16, pp. 977-984. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S236939.
External website: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC71672...
Purpose: We summarized the clinical manifestations, laboratory and electrodiagnostic characteristics and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of nitrous oxide (NO) abuse-induced neurological disorders.
Patients and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 33 patients with NO abuse-induced neurological disorders and reported their demographic data, clinical manifestations, laboratory examinations, nerve conduction studies, together with spinal and brain MRI.
Results: The most frequent clinical manifestations included numbness and weakness in the extremities and unspecified gait disturbance. Low serum vitamin B levels were found in 9 patients, and high homocysteine levels were noted in 27 patients. Nerve conduction studies showed a sensory-motor neuropathy. Sixteen patients showed bilateral high-intensity T2 signal within the posterior column on spinal MRI, and four patients showed cerebral white matter lesions on brain MRI.
Conclusion: NO abuse has become a significant public health problem because of the severe neurological disorders related to chronic abuse. Clinical physicians should be aware of the toxic effects of NO.
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