Egashira Y, Matsuyama H
Acta Pathol Jpn. 1982;32 Suppl 1:101-16.
Subacute myelo-optico-neuropathy (SMON) is a predominantly sensory neuropathy with peculiar clinical and histopathological features which began to appear in Japan around 1960, continued to increase and reached the highest annual incidence of 2,814 in 1959. Clioquinol or chinoform was strongly suspected as the cause of the disease because the iron chelate of chinoform was identified in the green urine of the patients. It is now believed that chinoform is the cause of SMON for the following reasons: 1) The retrospective investigation indicated that the majority of SMON patients had been given chinoform. 2) Dogs and monkeys orally given chinoform for many days in plural institutions showed exactly the same degenerative changes in the posterior and lateral funiculi of the spinal cords as the human patients. One institution obtained the same lesions also in cats. 3) The number of new patients has greatly decreased after the production and sale of chinoform were banned in September 1970. The pathology of the SMON patients and experimental chronic chinoform intoxication in animals were reviewed with some etiological comments.
亚急性脊髓视神经病（SMON）是一种以感觉神经病变为主的疾病，具有独特的临床和组织病理学特征，于1960年左右开始在日本出现，此后持续增多，在1959年达到年发病率最高的2814例。由于在患者的绿色尿液中发现了氯碘喹啉的铁螯合物，氯碘喹啉或氯仿被强烈怀疑为该病的病因。现在认为氯仿是SMON的病因，原因如下：1）回顾性调查表明，大多数SMON患者曾服用过氯仿。2）多个机构中，给狗和猴子连续多日口服氯仿后，其脊髓后索和外侧索出现了与人类患者完全相同的退行性变化。有一个机构在猫身上也得到了相同的病变。3）1970年9月氯仿生产和销售被禁止后，新患者数量大幅减少。本文对SMON患者的病理学以及动物实验性慢性氯仿中毒进行了回顾，并给出了一些病因学方面的评论。
