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Life-threatening acute lung injury after gamma butyrolactone ingestion
M van Gerwen1, H Scheper, D J Touw
1Department of Internal Medicine, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands.
The Netherlands Journal of Medicine
|April 9, 2015
Abstract:
We describe a case of a 44-year-old woman with a borderline personality disorder and chronic gamma- butyrolactone (GBL) use who presented with progressive dyspnoea and an altered mental status. A high anion gap metabolic acidosis and acute lung injury was diagnosed. We hypothesise this was caused by GBL. In this case report we describe the diagnostic process and possible pathophysiological mechanisms that may have led to this life-threatening condition.