Sulfur mustard percutaneous

Kulkami, A.S., Vijayaraghavan, R. et al. (2006). Evaluation of analogues of DRDE-07 as prophylactic agents against the lethality and toxicity of sulfur mustard administered through percutaneous route. J. Appl. Toxicol. 26 115-25. 

Gautam, A., Vijayaraghavan, R. (2007). The prophylactic effect of gossypin against percutaneously administered sulfur mustard. Biomed. Environ. Sci. 20 250-9. 

Illig, L., Paul, E., Eyer, P., Weger, N., Bom, W. (1979). Treatment of psoriasis vulgaris with external sulfur mustard gas with particular reference to its potential carcinogenic risk. III. Clinical and experimental studies on the extent of percutaneous and inhalational uptake of sulfur mustard gas. Z Hautkr. 54 941-51. 

Vijayaraghavan, R., Kulkami, A., Pant, S.C., Kumar, P., Rao, P.V., Gupta, N., Gautam, A., Ganesan, K. (2005). Differential toxicity of sulfur mustard administered through percutaneous, subcutaneous, and oral routes. Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 202 180-8. 

Hobson, D., Blank, J., Menton, R. (1985). Comparison of effectiveness of 39 experimental decontamination systems and evaluation of the effect of three pretreatment materials against percutaneous application of soman, thickened soman, VX, and sulfur mustard to the rabbit. Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. MREF Task 85-12. 

Ocular, percutaneous, inhalation, ingestion, and injection are all possible routes of exposure. Effects may be local, systemic, or both. All of the nitrogen mustards are oily liquids that are colorless to pale yellow and evaporate slowly. They are more dangerous than sulfur mustard but, like sulfur mustard, they are derivatives of ammonia. The most toxic and most volatile of the three nitrogen mustards is HN-2, but HN-3 is used more because it is stable. 

Hobson D, Blank J, Menton R. Comparison of Effectiveness of 30 Experimental Decontamination Systems and Evaluation of the Effect of Three Pretreatment Materials Against Percutaneous Application of Soman, Thickened Soman, VX, and Sulfur Mustard to the Rabbit. Edgewood Area, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md 1985. MREF Task 85-12 Final Report. 

Benson et al. (2011) percutaneously exposed guinea pigs to C-labeled sulfur mustard vapors (525mg/m ) for 12min, applied to three skin areas totaling 19.8cm. ... 

As mentioned previously, Benson et al. (2011) confirmed that 90% of percutaneously absorbed sulfur mustard was deposited in skin, whereas more than 70% absorbed sulfur mustard was distributed to the carcass and pelt after respiratory exposure. The distribution of sulfur mustard is highly dependent on the original route of exposure. It was confirmed that a considerable amoimt of sulfur mustard was still present in deep lipophilic compartments even after the end of exposure. 

While the previously discussed findings demonstrate the stability of sulfur mustard in lipophilic tissues, the agent is rapidly hydrolyzed whenever situated in an aqueous compartment (X cudilik, 1987). Thiodiglycol (TDG) is the primary hydrolysis product, in which the chlorine atoms have been replaced by hydroxyl groups. Karvaly et al. (2008) used subcutaneous microdialysis to monitor TDG in rats exposed to sulfur mustard. Peak concentrations of 7.2-21.7nmol/L TDG were found, following percutaneous exposure to 2pM sulfur mustard. 

Zhang and Wu (1987) chose the small pig (male and female, black, 4.2-13.0 kg) because of the aforementioned resemblance of its skin to that of humans. They chose this model to study the percutaneous toxicokinetics of occluded liquid sulfur mustard, and studied the iv route in this species as the reference route, as well as the toxicokinetics after subcutaneous (sc) exposure. 

Figure 7.4 Mean concentration-time courses ( standard error of the mean) of sulfur mustard in the blood of anesthetized, restrained hairless guinea pigs during and after 8 min nose only exposure to a Ct of 2400 mg min m ( ) and 45 min percutaneous exposure to a Ct of 10000 mg min m" (o).

In a sulfur mustard vapor environment, unprotected military personnel will be exposed simultaneously via the respiratory and percutaneous routes. Such a combined exposure has not yet been studied, but it would be interesting to see which route would be predominant. Obviously, the environmental conditions will have a profound influence on the relative importance of the two exposure routes. 

J. P. Langenberg and H. C. Trap, Inhalation and Percutaneous Toxicokinetics of Sulfur Mustard and Its Adducts in Hairless Guinea Pigs and Marmosets. Efficacy of Nasal Scavengers, Final report for USAMRMC contract DAMD17-03-1-0613, ADA441282, 2005. 

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