Aspiration and Death from Amitraz-Xylene Poisoning

Amitraz is an acaricide and insecticide indicated for the treatment of dogs and for the control of ticks and mites in cattle and sheep. We report the clinical, laboratory and postmortem features of a suicide case by ingestion of amitraz. The major clinical findings were unconsciousness, respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation, miosis, hypothermia and bradycardia. The laboratory findings were hyperglycemia. The postmortem findings were pulmonary edema and congestion in the lungs and fatty changes in the liver. In this case report, we concluded that xylene aspiration was responsible for pulmonary edema and congestion in the lungs, and the aspiration pneumonitis rapidly led to septicemia which was the probable cause of death. This case was reported because of the limited information in the literature on this subject.