A rare form of intoxication: acute methyl ethyl ketone peroxide poisoning

We report two suicidal cases of acute methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP) poisoning. A woman in her late 60s suffered from oral mucosal erosion, functional impairment of the heart, liver and other organs, pulmonary inflammation, elevated inflammatory markers, pleural effusion, hypoproteinemia and metabolic acidosis after oral administration of approximately 50 mL of MEKP. After admission, the patient was administered hemoperfusion four times, 8 mg of betamethasone for 6 days and symptomatic support. Hemoperfusion had an obvious effect on the treatment of oral MEKP poisoning. After discharge, the patient developed progressive dysphagia and secondary esophageal stenosis. Supplementary feeding was administered with a gastrostomy tube after the patient was completely unable to eat. A man in his mid-40s developed oropharyngeal mucosal erosion, bronchitis and esophageal wall thickening after oral administration of 40 ml MEKP. After receiving total gastrointestinal dispersal, 80 mg of methylprednisolone was administered for 7 days, and symptomatic supportive treatment was provided. Slight dysphagia was observed after discharge, and there was no major effect on the quality of life. Patients with acute oral MEKP poisoning should be followed up regularly to observe its long-term effects on digestive tract corrosion and stenosis.

Spectrophotometric determination of iron (III) catalyst in organic compound chlorinations

In the science or industrial practice of chemical processes, iron (III) is sometimes used as a catalyst in organic compound chlorinations due to its effectiveness and low cost. Thus, a fast and easy method of determination in the system is useful especially when metallic iron is used as a precursor which is readily converted into iron (III) chloride by the gaseous chlorine used in the chlorination reactor. In the latter case, the determination of the produced catalytically effective iron (III) is a prerequisite for controlling the kinetic progress of chlorination. In this work, a method for the spectrophotometric determination of iron (III) chloride in organic media after complexation with methyl ethyl ketone is investigated. The formation of a strong o-complex of iron (III) with methyl ethyl ketone allows direct determination of iron at 360 nm.Beer’s law is valid up to absorbance 2.42, where the iron (III) concentration is 20.7 mg·L-1, with molar absorptivity (e) equal to 6.532×103 L·mol-1·cm-1 and Sandell’s sensitivity 8.5×10-3 ug·cm- 2. Standing time for color development is of the order of a few seconds and stability of color measurements exceeds 12 months. The method may be used among other applications in organic compounds chlorinations catalyzed by iron. These systems are complicated due to the coexistence of various complexes. Nevertheless, the method proposed being simple, fast, and not depending on the composition of the chlorination mixture and the amount of methyl ethyl ketone added was found to be suitable.