Chelation Therapy in the Treatment of Metal Intoxication presents a practical guide to the use of chelation therapy, from its basic chemistry, to available chelating antidotes, and the application of chelating agents. Several metals have long been known to be toxic to humans, and continue to pose great difficulty to treat. These challenges pose particular problems in industrial settings, with lead smelting known to be associated with hemopoietic alterations and paralyses, and the inhalation of mercury vapor in mercury mining being extremely detrimental to the central nervous system.

Clinical experience has demonstrated that acute and chronic human intoxications with a range of metals can be treated efficiently by administration of chelating agents. Chelation Therapy in the Treatment of Metal Intoxication describes the chemical and biological principles of chelation in the treatment of these toxic metal compounds, including new chelators such as meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) and D,L-2,3-dimercapto-1-propanesulfonic acid (DMPS).

Presents all the current findings on the potential for chelation as a therapy for metal intoxication
Presents practical guidelines for selecting the most appropriate chelating agent
Includes coverage on radionuclide exposure and metal storage diseases
Describes the chemical and biological principles of chelation in the treatment of toxic metal compounds

Auteur

Jan Aaseth was born in 1943 in Norway. He graduated in medicine in 1968 from University of Oslo. After the internship period he became authorized physician in 1970. In the period 1970-77 he worked at department of clinical chemistry and Institute of clinical biochemistry, Oslo University Hospital, with a grant from the National Research Council. He completed his doctoral thesis on metal chelation in 1976, and became an authorized specialist in medical biochemistry. In the period 1977-83 he continued his research on biochemical toxicology at the National Institute of Occupation Health of Norway. During this time he specialized in occupational medicine, and he chaired the Department of Experimental Toxicology for two years. After a subsequent period of specialization also in internal medicine, he was appointed as chair and professor of the Department of Occupational Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway. Later, he has been head of department of clinical chemistry and section on endocrinology at Innlandet Hospital, and in recent years professor at Hedmark University College.

Professor Aaseth is an enthusiastic teacher. During his carrier he has lectured on medical biochemistry, toxicology, occupational and environmental medicine, internal medicine, nutrition and endocrinology, and he has been supervisor to numerous undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students during their research projects. He has published some 200 papers.

Professor Aaseth is chair of the Nordic Trace Element Society and vice chair of the Committee for Geomedicine of The Norwegian Academy of Science. He has served on the organizing or scientific committees of several international conferences, including as chair of the First International Symposium on 'Trace Elements in Human Health and Disease' in Loen, Norway, 1985, and also of the subsequent Nordic symposia on this topic in 1993 and in 2013. He served in the scientific committee of the International Conference on Chelation, Paphos, Cyprus 2012, and in the organizing committee of the Conference of the International Society of Trace Element Research in Humans, Dubrovnik, October 2015.

Contenu

General chemistry of metals and chelating agents 2. Chelating agents as therapeutic compounds 3. Diagnosis and evaluation of metal poisonings 4. Chelation Treatment during acute and chronic Metal Poisonings 5. Decorpoation of Radionuclides 6. Therapy of metal storage diseases (genetic diseases) 7. Guidance and precautions for clinicians 8. Concluding remarks