Intro Flashcards
What are the 2 main aspects of clinical toxicology?
1) Diagnosis
2) Treatment
What are the similarities between pharmacology and toxicology?
Drugs can be poisons and poisons can be drugs (the dose is the difference)
Drugs and poisons are xenobiotics (foreign chemicals that the body does not produce)
What is a poison (toxicant)?
Can be defined as any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) when applied or introduced into the body may interfere with life processes or biological functions of the cells of the animal
What are the 4 natural sources of poisons?
Plants, animals, minerals, fungi/bacteria
What are examples of synthetic poisons?
Organophosphate and chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides, organic herbisides
What is a toxin (biotoxin)?
A poison from a biologic process (e.g., zootoxins or animal toxins, phytotoxins or plant toxins, bacterial toxins and mycotoxins)
Toxic
Term used to describe the deleterious or undesirable effects of poisons
Toxicosis (poisoning or intoxication)
The DISEASE caused by exposure to a poison
Toxicity
The AMOUNT of a poison that under certain circumstances will cause toxic effects
How is toxicity expressed in mammals? In birds?
Mammals: usually expressed as LD50 (lethal dose 50) in mg/kg body weight
Birds: expressed as LC50 (lethal concentration 50) in mg/kg feed and in fish as LC50 in mg/liter water
Acute toxicity
The effect of a single dose or multiple doses during a 24 hour period
Subacute toxicity
The effect produced by daily exposure from one day to 30 days
Subchronic toxicity
The effect of exposure from 30 days to 90 days
Chronic toxicity
The effect produced by daily exposure for a period of 3 months (90 days) or more
Chronicity factor
The ratio between acute LD50 and chronic LD50
Extremely toxic
1 mg/kg or less
Highly toxic
> 1-50 mg/kg
Moderately toxic
> 50-500 mg/kg
Slightly toxic
> 0.5-5 g/kg
Practically nontoxic
> 5-15 g/kg
Relatively harmless
> 15 g/kg
The highest non-toxic dose (HNTD)
The highest or largest dose which does NOT result in undesirable or toxic alterations (clinical, hematologic, biochemical, or pathologic alterations)
Maximum tolerated dose or minimal toxic dose (MDT)
Similar to the highest non-toxic dose
Toxic dose low (TDL)
The lowest dose which produces toxic alterations and administering twice this dose will not cause death
