Intoxication by the chickling pea (Lathyrus sativus): nervous system and skeletal findings

Two hundred patients with chronic neurolathyrism were examined 25-35 years after the appearance of signs and symptoms of intoxication of the chickling pea. Their daily food intake, in a German forced labor camp during World War II, consisted of 400 g Lathyrus sativus peas cooked in water plus 200 g bread baked of barley and straw. Apart from the classic signs of neurolathyrism, i.e., a spastic paraparesis, in five cases, the skeletal findings observed were similar to experimental osteolathyrism. There was an absence of ossification centers of the iliac creasts, ischial tuberosities and vertebrae; and bowing with thickening of the femoral shaft also occurred. These bony changes in human lathyrism have not been described before.