Seppäläinen A M
Department of Neurology, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Crit Rev Toxicol. 1988;18(4):245-98. doi: 10.3109/10408448809037468.
Various neurophysiological methods, including electroencephalography, electromyography, nerve conduction velocities, and evoked potential techniques, have been used to detect early signs of neurotoxicity in humans. These methods have been applied to groups of occupationally exposed workers and their referents in epidemiologic studies, to patients with suspected or proven diseases after long-term work in toxic environment, and to human subjects during or after experimental exposure. The main body of knowledge arises from epidemiologic studies of occupationally exposed subjects, and several chemicals widely used in industry have been shown to be neurotoxic. Of these, e.g., lead causing peripheral neuropathy, some solvents like carbon disulfide, n-hexane, and methyl n-butyl ketone also causing neuropathy and at times central nervous system effects as well as acryl amide have been studied using neurophysiological approaches. Several other solvents including toluene, xylene, and various mixtures of organic solvents have been suspected to be neurotoxic, and nervous system effects have been ascribed to those in several neurophysiological studies. Some studies have elucidated acute nervous system effects of ethyl alcohol or industrial solvents in experimental situations applying, for example, evoked potential techniques or electroencephalography.
包括脑电图、肌电图、神经传导速度和诱发电位技术在内的各种神经生理学方法已被用于检测人类神经毒性的早期迹象。这些方法已应用于职业暴露工人及其对照人群的流行病学研究、长期在有毒环境中工作后疑似或确诊疾病的患者，以及实验暴露期间或之后的人体受试者。主要的知识来源于对职业暴露对象的流行病学研究，并且已证明工业中广泛使用的几种化学物质具有神经毒性。其中，例如铅会导致周围神经病变，一些溶剂如二硫化碳、正己烷和甲基正丁基酮也会导致神经病变，有时还会产生中枢神经系统影响，丙烯酰胺也已使用神经生理学方法进行了研究。其他几种溶剂，包括甲苯、二甲苯和各种有机溶剂混合物，也被怀疑具有神经毒性，并且在一些神经生理学研究中已将神经系统影响归因于这些溶剂。一些研究在实验情况下，例如应用诱发电位技术或脑电图，阐明了乙醇或工业溶剂对急性神经系统的影响。
