OBJECTIVE Agricultural pesticide handlers are at an elevated risk for overexposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides, but symptoms can be difficult to recognise, making biomarkers invaluable for diagnosis. Occupational monitoring programmes for cholinesterase depression generally rely on measuring activity of either of the two common blood cholinesterases which serve as proxy measurements for ...

Organophosphate (OPs) compounds are widely used in intensive agriculture to improve production, protect crops and control diseases vectors. The main mechanism of toxicity of OPs is the inhibition of the Cholinesterase enzymes. In this study the acetylcholinestrase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and specific acetylcholinestrase (SAChE) activities as potential biomarkers of exposure to OPs ...

train-of-four on a peripheral nerve stimulator and sustained head lifting. General anaesthesia for ECT has three main functions: lack of awareness of the therapy; modification of the motor effects of the fit to prevent injury; fast recovery of reflexes and consciousness enabling early airway protection. Suxamethonium is the best neuromuscular blocking drug for ECT, because of its short duration...

In 1986, Whittaker wrote ‘Churchill-Davidson’s editorial entitled “The succinylcholine story” in 1963, highlighted probably for the first time in the UK, the role of serum protein polymorphism in drug sensitivity’ [1]. Following a series of detailed family studies, in 1959 Kalow [2] concluded that individuals who had prolonged apnoea following succinylcholine administration were homozygous for ...

The study aimed to the investigation of the toxicity of organophosphorus pesticides malathion (MLT) and diazinon (DZN) in Wistar rats in a repeated dose study for 35 days. MLT and DZN in corn oil vehicle were oral administered. Body and organs weights, plasma and brain cholinesterase activities, serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activities, histopathologi...

Data on blood cholinesterase levels in the Malaysian population is lacking. The spectrophotometric method of Ellman was used to determine the red cell, plasma and whole blood cholinesterase (ChE) levels in 407 Malaysian blood donors. The mean+1SD for plasma ChE in females (n = 48) was 2.37 + 0.70 umol/min/ml and 2.76 + 0.75 umol/min/ml in males (n = 359). The mean plasma ChE in males was higher...