[A toxicometric assessment of pneumonias and acute respiratory failure in poisonings].

The author analyzes clinical and morphologic manifestations of pneumonia and the conditions under which acute respiratory failure formed in 572 subjects who suffered poisoning with psychotropic and soporific drugs, chlorinated hydrocarbons, organophosphorus insecticides, caustic poisons, alcohol and its surrogates. Toxicometric (quantitative) assessment of the toxic effects and measurement of the toxins concentrations under which respiratory failure developed helped detect new mechanisms in the patho- and thanatogenesis of pneumonias and acute respiratory failure in poisonings. These data are of great interest for practical forensic medicine, since they permit substantiating the causes of death in various types of poisonings. The diagram proposed by the author permits assessment of the initial chemical trauma from the clinical and morphologic picture of poisoning.