[Neurologic symptoms in inhalation poisoning with metallic mercury]

Nineteen caisson workers had been exposed to metallic mercury vapours while digging tubes underneath the first district of Vienna (exposure between 470 and 2440 min; mean 1621 min). The blood mercury values on admission were between 29 and 166 micrograms/l (mean 75 +/- 34 micrograms/l). The main findings reported are clinical neurologic symptoms, psychic complaints, neurographic results and autonomic parameters (cardiovascular reflexes): 47% complained of headache and tiredness, 37% showed tremor and suffered from sleep disturbances, 26% showed hypersalivation, 16% changes in handwriting, and 11% slight dysarthria. The cardiovascular reflexes (autonomic parameters) were abnormal in 7 of 12 patients. On neurography the distal latency (median nerve) was pathologic in 47%, the distal latency (peroneal nerve) was pathologic in 26%, the antidromic sensory nerve conduction velocity (median nerve) was abnormal in 10%, the motor nerve conduction velocity, compound amplitude and vibratory threshold were normal.