Toxicology Flashcards
What is the highest incidence of toxic exposure in the US?
young kids younger than 5 > teens > adults
Definition of toxicology
Study of adverse effects of xenobiotics in humans
Xenobiotics
Chemicals and drugs that are not normally found in or produced by the body. Describe the environmental exposure to chemicals or drugs.
What are the 3 major disciples of toxicology?
Mechanistic, Descriptive, and Regulatory
What is mechanistic toxicology?
Explain the cellular, molecular, and biochemical effects of xenobiotics within the context of a dose-response relationship between the xenobiotic and its adverse effects
What is descriptive toxicology?
Uses the results from animal experiments to predict what level of exposure will cause harm to humans (risk assessment)
What is regulatory toxicology?
Combines data from mechanistic and descriptive studies to establish standards that define the level of exposure that will not pose a risk to public health or safety
What are the three toxicology specialties?
Forensic, clinical, environmental
What is the purpose of forensic tox?
Primarily concerned with the medical and legal consequences of exposure
Major focus is establishing and validating the analytic performance of test methods used to generate evidence in legal situations—including cause of death
What is the purpose of clinical tox?
Focuses on relationships between xenobiotics and disease states
Emphasis on diagnostic testing and therapeutic intervention
What is the purpose of environmental tox?
The evaluation of environmental chemical pollutants and their impacts on human health
Which of the following is an exogenous substance?
Xenobiotics
Poisons
Toxins
Xenobiotics and Poisons
Poisons
Describe substances from an animal, plant, mineral, or gas
Toxins
Endogenous substance biologically synthesized either in living cells or in microorganisms. Toxicant and toxic refers to substances that are not produced within a living cell or microorganism and are more commonly used to describe environmental chemicals
Populations in which we see majority of poisoning cases
50% Suicide (highest mortality)
30% Accidental (most frequent in children)
20% Homicide/Occupational (industry or agriculture)
What are the most common routes of exposure/
Ingestion, inhalation, transdermal absorption
T/F:
Ionized substances can undergo passive diffusion
FALSE
Ionized CANNOT
Hydrophobic CAN
List some factors that can influence absorption
rate of dissolution, GI motility, resistance to degradation in GI tract, other substances
What is the central theme to toxicology?
The concept that all substances have the potential to cause harm
What is the purpose of the toxicity rating? (dose-response relationship of oral dose)
Useful system to compare relative toxicities of substances as the predicted endpoint is death. It evaluates data from a frequency histogram to toxic responses over a range of doses and will evaluate the responses over that wide range of concentration
5mg/kg can be lethal
What is TD50?
The toxic dose
the dose that would produce a toxic response in 50% of the population
What is LD50?
The lethal dose
the dose that would produce a lethal response in 50% of the population
What is ED50?
The effective dose
the dose that would produce a therapeutic/beneficial/effective response in 50% of the population
What is the therapeutic index?
Ratio of TD50 OR LD50 to the ED50
TD50:ED50
OR
LD50:ED50
What does it mean when you have a large therapeutic index?
That there are fewer toxic/adverse effects when the dose is in the TR
Does the following statement refer to Acute or Chronic toxicity:
Generally associated with repeated and frequent exposure for extended time periods at doses that are insufficient to cause an immediate acute response
Chronic
Acute refers to a single, short term exposure to a substance in which the dose can cause immediate toxic effects
T/F:
Signs and symptoms are often non-specific and relies on lab testing
TRUE
What are common specimen types for tox testing?
Urine and blood
Forensics often use serum, plasma, nails, hair, oral fluid
Define toxicokinetics
Toxic agents exhibit unique absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination
Analysis of toxic agents is typically a two step process consisting of __1__ and __2__
1) screening (qualitative)
2) confirmatory (quantitative)
What are the methods used in toxic agent analysis?
Immunoassays (most common), GC, LC-MS, Inorganic compounds, NMR
State the most significant metabolism pathway for alcohols:
1) Alcohol
2) ADH (alcohol dehydrogenase)
3) Aldehyde
4) ALDH (hepatic aldehyde dehydrogenase)
5) Acid
What tubes are preferred for blood for toxic analysis?
Royal Blue trace free unless lead testing then we want a tan top
These are known to be free of certain chemicals
____ are known to have a common depressant effect on the CNS, mediated by changes in membrane properties
Alcohols
___ is in the top 10 causes of hospital admissions
ETOH (ethanol- most common)
What is fetal alcohol syndrome caused by and what is the result?
Ethanol consumption during pregnancy. It can result in delayed motor and mental capabilities