The symptoms of glufosinate ammonium (GLA) intoxication include gastrointestinal and neurologic symptoms, respiratory failure, and cardiovascular instability. Among these, neurologic symptoms including loss of consciousness, memory impairment, and seizure are characteristic of GLA poisoning. However, the mechanism of brain injury by GLA poisoning is still poorly understood. We investigated nine patients who had performed an F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) scan because of memory impairment caused by GLA ingestion. FDG-PET images of patients with GLA intoxication were compared with 24 age- and sex-matched healthy controls to evaluate whether the patients had abnormal patterns of glucose metabolism in the brain. Decreased glucose metabolism was observed in the inferior frontal and temporal lobes of these patients with GLA intoxication when compared with 24 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Three patients performed follow-up FDG-PET scans. However, it was shown that the results of the follow-up FDG-PET scans were determined to be inconclusive. Our study showed that memory impairment induced by GLA intoxication was associated with glucose hypometabolism in the inferior frontal and temporal lobes in the brain.
Keywords: F-18 flurodeoxyglucose; glufosinate ammonium; herbicides; memory disorder; poisoning; positron emission tomography.