[Computer-based information system (CliniTox) for the management of poisoning in small animals]

Because cases of poisoning are observed rarely, veterinary practitioners have only limited knowledge of clinical toxicology and may face considerable problems in handling toxicological emergencies. In this report, we describe a novel decision support system for the management of poisonings in companion animals that provides rapid access to the current knowledge of clinical toxicology. For that purpose, relevant reports from the peer-reviewed literature were evaluated and organised according to the requirements of a structured database. The information provided for each toxic substance includes a summary of its chemical and physical properties, sources, commercial uses or natural occurrences, toxicokinetic data, mechanisms of action, threshold doses, clinical symptoms with brief case reports, sampling and analytical results, post-mortem findings, differential diagnoses, therapeutic guidelines and references to the literature. This decision support system has been programmed with two user-friendly search functions: a search tool that allows to choose clinical symptoms, and another function that serves to find a substance using its chemical name, the class of compounds to wich it belongs, a possible source or one of its main applications. CliniTox can be accessed directly via our webserver (http://www.clinitox.ch).