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Conjugal amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: toxic clustering or chance?

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Abstract

We describe a southern Italian couple, married for 28 years, who developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) within 30 months of each other. They had drunk water taken from an artesian well for nearly thirthy years. Samples of the water were investigated in the search for heavy metals and pesticides using high performances liquid chromatography, gas chromatography and absorption spectrometry. No heavy metals, pesticides or known environmental toxic substances were found in significant concentration. This would seem to support the view that conjugal ALS in Caucasians is due to mere coincidence.

Sommario

Descriviamo il caso di una coppia dell'Italia del Sud in cui entrambi i coniugi, a distanza di 30 mesi l'uno dall'altra, si sono ammalati di Sclerosi Laterale Amiotrofica. In letteratura non sono descritti altri casi di SLA Coniugale in cui sia stata effettuata una estensiva ricerca di tossici ambientali.

La coppia ha utilizzato l'acqua di un pozzo artesiano per tutta la durata della vita in comune (28 anni). Allo scopo di individuare sostanze tossiche abbiamo analizzato due campioni di acqua in tempi diversi. La ricerca di metalli pesanti e pesticidi con le tecniche di Cromatografia Liquida ad Alte Prestazioni (HPLC), Gas-Cromatografia con estrazione in fase solida e Spettrofotometria non ha evidenziato concentrazioni superiori ai limiti previsti. In conclusione questo studio sembrerebbe in favore del fatto che i casi di SLA Coniugale nella nostra popolazione siano dovuti ad una semplice coincidenza.

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Poloni, M., Micheli, A., Facchetti, D. et al. Conjugal amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: toxic clustering or chance?. Ital J Neuro Sci 18, 109–112 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01999572

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01999572

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