Potentially life-threatening emergency
Saxitoxin poisoning
Alerts and Notices
Synopsis
Patients most often present in coastal locations, particularly in the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast United States. Commercially harvested shellfish is routinely tested for saxitoxin, and thus patients have typically ingested clams or mussels collected personally from local beaches.
Saxitoxin has been identified as a potential agent of bioterrorism, although it has not been used in an attack to date.
Codes
ICD10CM:T61.784A – Other shellfish poisoning, undetermined, initial encounter
SNOMEDCT:
77889005 – Paralytic shellfish poisoning
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Differential Diagnosis & Pitfalls
- Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy
- Organophosphate poisoning
- Arsenic poisoning
- Thallium poisoning
- Botulism
- Tick paralysis
- Podophyllum toxicity
- Hypermagnesemia
- Tetrodotoxin poisoning
- Osmotic demyelination syndrome / extrapontine myelinolysis
- Brain stem stroke
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References
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Last Reviewed:05/06/2019
Last Updated:05/06/2019
Last Updated:05/06/2019