UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Toxicology

Title: Food Toxicology Pearls

Keywords: Food Poisoning, tetrodotoxin, ciguatera toxin (PubMed Search)

Posted: 11/22/2007 by Fermin Barrueto, MD (Updated: 4/16/2024)
Click here to contact Fermin Barrueto, MD

A short list of some of the unique food poisonings and the toxicologic effects:

Ciguatera toxin (fish): hot-cold sensation reversal
Tetrodotoxin (fugu, puffer fish): paresthesias progressing to paralysis and dysrythmias
Scrombroid (spoiled fish): flushed face due to histamine ingestion
Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (mussels, clams, etc): acts like curare, toxin is saxitoxin
Amnestic shellfish poisoning (mussels): exactly what it says, loss of memory - very cool