Circulatory System.
—A very large number of the symptoms referable to chronic and well-defined lead poisoning are referable to circulatory lesions, and, as has been elsewhere pointed out, the ultimate nerve degeneration occurring in various parts of the body is probably but a final symptom of the earlier hæmorrhage which has taken place. Certain symptoms are, however, more closely related to the circulation than others, and may therefore be more conveniently grouped together under the present heading. The smaller changes, many of them connected with special organs (such, for instance, as the eye) or particular regions (as the mesenteric vessels), have been already referred to in dealing with colic and eye changes. Vaso-motor changes precede the actual change in the vessel walls themselves. On the other hand, the alterations in the structure of the liver, lung, spleen, and more especially the kidney, are secondary to change in the structure of the walls of the vessels themselves.
Vaso-motor disturbances may or may not be of nervous origin, although the former view is probably correct, and it is also equally possible that the direct affection of the vessels is associated with the nerve irritation. On the other hand, direct inflammation of the vessel walls, resulting in obliterative arteritis, in arterio-sclerosis, and degeneration and exudation in the kidney, lung, and liver, are practically due to degenerative changes either in the intima or the middle coats of the finer vessels. The common symptoms of arterio-sclerosis, vertigo, headache, and pulsation in the vessels, and of the persistent headache already referred to, all suggest changes taking place in the vessels complicated by œdema. In the early stages of kidney degeneration, however, it is common to find an interstitial nephritis due apparently to exudation from the vessel walls. Such an hypothesis is to some extent supported by the somewhat allied condition of engorgement and fibroid change in the liver and lung, and to a lesser extent in the spleen. In the lung, even in persons not exposed to inhalation of lead, and in animals, as pointed out by Glibert, secondary changes in the lung follow lead intoxication, such changes taking the form of emphysema and generalized fibrosis; whilst the liver is engorged with blood, and later undergoes similar degenerative changes. The bloodvessels in these organs are found to have lost a considerable amount of their elasticity, to have yielded here and there, and in other places to be completely closed by obliterative arteritis. Microscopical hæmorrhages are to be found mainly in the veins leading from the capillaries. In the kidney such vessel changes as are outlined are the precursors of disease, and albumin is found in the urine, but the quantity is rarely very large. Casts are not common, and the amount of lead present in the urine may be exceedingly small, difficult to trace, and in many cases entirely absent.
In the later stages of chronic saturnism the heart may show degenerative changes. Microscopical examination of the heart muscle shows that alteration of the fibres of the muscles takes place in a manner similar to that of the voluntary muscles. Disease of the heart valves is uncommon; alterations in the heart sounds are infrequent; the clinical picture of the cardiac condition is that of a “flabby” heart.
REFERENCES.
[1] Meillère, G.: Le Saturnisme. Paris, 1903.
[2] Blyth, Wynter: Proc. Chem. Soc, 1887-88.
[3] Peyrusson and Pillault: Meillère’s Le Saturnisme, chap. iv.
[4] Newton Pitt: Trans. Path. Soc, No. 42, 1891.
[5] Glibert: Le Saturnisme Expérimental: Extrait des Rapports Ann. de l’Inspect. du Travail, Brussels, 1906.