A 19-year-old boy has a splitting headache and his whole body is purple! It turns out that the strange disease is related to the takeaway food he often eats

A few days ago, Xiaofeng (pseudonym), a 19-year-old sophomore, suddenly had a splitting headache, a low-grade fever, and cyanosis all over his body, turning him into a "little purple man." Upon seeing this, the school teacher immediately sent him to the emergency department of Ningbo Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital for treatment.

After relevant examinations and consultations, it was found that the reason why Xiaofeng became a "little purple man" was nitrite poisoning. Since entering college, he, a sophomore this year, has been free from the constraints of his parents and has completely let go of his diet. His takeaway list is almost entirely pickled foods such as sausages, braised meats, and pickled vegetables.

01

Nitrite poisoning

Become a "little purple man"

Xiaofeng was treated by Dr. Chai Shuren from the emergency department. He carefully observed the patient's physical appearance and found that his lips, nails, tip of tongue and other parts showed typical blue-gray cyanotic changes; his limbs were cold to the touch and he had a low fever, with his oral temperature at 37.5℃ (normal is 36.3℃~37.2℃); his oxygen saturation was low, with transcutaneous blood oxygen saturation of only 85%~90% (normal is 93%~100%); blood gas analysis showed that his methemoglobin was significantly elevated.

The most common clinical cause of elevated methemoglobin is that the patient has been exposed to certain drugs or poisons, such as nitrites, phenacetin, procaine, or aniline. Since the patient is still a college student, Dr. Chai considered nitrite poisoning. He asked the patient in detail about his usual eating habits. Xiaofeng said that he likes to eat pickled foods very much. Sausages, braised meats, and pickled vegetables often appear on his takeaway list.

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This further confirmed Dr. Chai's guess that Xiaofeng became a "little purple man" because he took in too much nitrite at one time, which led to nitrite poisoning.

Doctor Chai immediately arranged for Xiaofeng to inhale oxygen, injected detoxifying drugs, and performed symptomatic treatment such as catharsis. Afterwards, Xiaofeng's skin oxygen returned to 97%~98%, and his lips and nails were much rosier than when he was sent to the clinic.

At present, Xiaofeng is no longer in danger of death.

02

Pickled foods are delicious

But don't be greedy

Dr. Chai explained that the main causes of nitrite poisoning in daily life include mistakenly consuming nitrite as table salt; eating pickled meat products, kimchi and spoiled vegetables with high nitrate or nitrite content; drinking bitter well water or steamer water with high nitrate or nitrite content.

According to Dr. Chai, nitrite poisoning has an acute onset, usually within half an hour to three hours after eating food containing nitrite, and can last up to 20 hours in a short period of ten minutes. The main manifestation is hypoxia , with varying degrees of purple-black, blue-gray or blue-brown skin and mucous membranes, especially on the lips and nails ; accompanied by dizziness, headache, fatigue, palpitations, vomiting, irritability, and dyspnea. In severe cases, shock, convulsions, suffocation, respiratory and circulatory failure, signs of pulmonary edema, etc. may occur. If not treated in time, it will seriously endanger life.

Dr. Chai reminds everyone that although pickled food is delicious, don't be greedy. In daily life, if you have similar symptoms of nitrite poisoning, you should go to the emergency department of the hospital immediately. While waiting for 120 to arrive, you can remove the toxins that have entered the human body as soon as possible by inducing vomiting and drinking a lot of water.

Source: According to People's Daily Online

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