Acute poisoning by intentional ingestion of thallous malonate

A 26-year-old man who ingested 10 g of thallous malonate was treated by gastric lavage and combined haemodialysis and haemoperfusion. At a blood flow of 100 ml/min, the average of thallium clearance values obtained by combined haemoperfusion and haemodialysis at two different times were 50.2 and 60.4 ml/min. Forty hours after ingestion, he died of cardiac failure. A higher concentration of thallium was found in the heart than in other organs, suggesting that the heart is the main target of thallium in the early stage of acute poisoning.