Successful treatment of patients with paraquat intoxication: three case reports and review of the literature.

Objective: To report on three patients with paraquat (PQ) intoxication surviving after combined therapy with hemoperfusion (HP), cyclophosphamide (CTX), and glucocorticoid.

Methods: Three patients suffered acute renal failure in a few days after ingesting a lethal amount of PQ. Chest computed tomography (CT) scans revealed obvious pulmonary inflammation, pleural effusion, and fibrous lesions several days after ingestion.

Lysine acetylsalicylate ameliorates lung injury in rats acutely exposed to paraquat.

Background: Paraquat (PQ), an effective and widely used herbicide, has been proven to be safe when appropriately applied to eliminate weeds. However, PQ poisoning is an extremely frustrating clinical condition with a high mortality and with a lack of effective treatments in humans. PQ mainly accumulates in the lung, and the main molecular mechanism of PQ toxicity is based on redox cycling and intracellular oxidative stress generation.