Posted on 07/09/2007 10:39:24 PM PDT by neverdem
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Mar 02 - In 2005, two young children died of cardiac arrest after receiving treatment with edetate disodium (Na2EDTA) as a chelating agent to lower blood lead levels, according to an article in the March 3rd issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not recommend Na2EDTA as a chelating agent in children because it induces hypocalcemia and possibly fatal tetany, note Dr. R. A. Beauchamp, from the Texas Department of State Health Services, and colleagues.
They report that a 2-year-old girl in Texas with a venous blood lead level of 48 g/dL was admitted to a medical center for combined oral and IV chelation therapy, at which time her blood electrolyte levels were within normal limits. She received her first dose of IV edetate calcium disodium (CaEDTA), followed by oral succimer. At 4:00 the next morning, she was mistakenly given a dose of IV Na2EDTA.
An hour later her serum calcium level was 5.2 mg/dL, below the normal value of 8.5 to 10.5 mg/dL. At 7:05, she was limp and not breathing. Despite repeated doses of calcium chloride, she died at 8:12. Cause of death was recorded as sudden cardiac arrest resulting from hypocalcemia.
The second patient, a 5-year-old autistic boy in Pennsylvania, was treated with Na2EDTA in a physician's office. He lost consciousness and died of acute cerebral hypoxic-ischemic injury, secondary to diffuse subendocardial necrosis caused by Na2EDTA.
Dr. Beauchamp's group also report the case of a 53-year-old woman who was treated in 2003 in Oregon with IV EDTA in a naturopathic practitioner's clinic to remove heavy metals from her body. Within 15 minutes she lost consciousness, and later died of cardiac arrhythmia resulting from hypocalcemia associated with EDTA infusion and vascuolar cardiomyopathy. The Oregon State Naturopath Licensing Board is investigating to see which form of EDTA was used in her treatment.
The authors advise physicians to consult an expert in the chemotherapy of lead poisoning before administering chelation therapy. They also suggest that hospital pharmacies should discontinue stocking Na2EDTA because less toxic alternatives are available.
They conclude: "Case reports of cardiac arrest or symptoms of hypocalcemia during chelation therapy should be reported to the CDC Lead Poisoning Prevention branch (770-488-3300) or to MedWatch, the FDA adverse event reporting system at http://www.fda.gov/medwatch.
MMWR 2006;55:204-207.
Curious about why incidents that occurred two years ago are making headlines now.
Children of that age might not have enough bone structure and development of the endocrine system that could make up for sudden drops in serum calcium levels. There is NOT A MEDICINE IN THE WORLD that does not have profuse and elaborate cautions about using in children less than 12 or so.
That said, I wish I knew more about when the study will be done, but the NIH clinical trials study of EDTA is underway. A five year study that began in 2002, we should soon have the results.
****The Oregon State Naturopath Licensing Board is investigating to see which form of EDTA was used in her treatment. ****
Probably the “harmless” type used to clean coal fired power plant boiler tubes.:-)
Thanks for posting this.
I was pinged to a new link on an old thread of mine, so I figured that I might as well post it. EDTA preferentially chelates divalent cations. Giving the Disodium version of EDTA is begging for trouble, IMHO.
I'm sorry if the last link doesn't look professional, but it was a quick HTML link. Enter EDTA specifically chelates divalent cations into a search engine. You'll get a bunch of pdf links on the first page.
Calcium EDTA would have been the treatment of choice.
When you think about it, a child of that age probably has very little free calcium in his body. He/She is positively overflowing with hormones at that age whose sole purpose is to bind any and all calcium it can find into the bones and teeth.
So I’m inclined to view this as a practitioner error, not bad therapy. It is a proven therapy for heavy metal poisoning.
There’s alot at stake here. I just don’t like headlines that make EDTA out to be some kind of bugaboo before the evidence is really in.
Chinese regulator warns on food safety [threatens social stability]
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Antifreeze (ethylene glycol) gets metabolized to oxalic acid which grabs calcium and poisons the victim in a similiar fashion to the reported edta events.
Chelation with that is also contra-indicated.
Maybe it has made headlines now because chelation therapy is becoming popular in alternative health circles as a way of treating heart disease?
LOL.
But that’s my point. All three of the cases mentioned were for heavy metal poisoning. EDTA has been used for that - highly successfully and safely - since the 40’s.
IMHO the article could have been titled better.
It's been four years. The results should be in by now.
“****The Oregon State Naturopath Licensing Board is investigating to see which form of EDTA was used in her treatment. ****
Probably the “harmless” type used to clean coal fired power plant boiler tubes.:-)”
I wonder how many people know that??
It was during a Vertan (EDTA) boiler chemical cleaning I learned that various sodas like Mountain Dew had EDTA listed as an ingredient. Does that mean a heavy Mountain Dew drinker has clean pipes?
Mountain Dew has calcium disodium EDTA.
Vertan contains sodium from reading the MSDS.
Agreed!
“Maybe it has made headlines now because chelation therapy is becoming popular in alternative health circles as a way of treating heart disease?”
It is becoming more popular in the US but it’s been used for many years in other countries.
I believe (I’d have to check this to make sure) that Australia requires chelation therapy before heart bypass to see if they can avoid costly heart bypass surgery.
Doesn’t work for me. I drink Mountain Dew and I had to have a heart stent installed last year.
I suggested selling the used boiler EDTA to a local cookie manufacturer as an iron supplement. ;-)
This may be a dumb question, but what is the reason to stock it in the first place?
I have no idea. Here's the FDA search for 'Na2EDTA indications,' only pdf links.
http://google2.fda.gov/search?client=FDA&site=FDA&lr=&proxystylesheet=FDA&output=xml_no_dtd&getfields=*&q=Na2EDTA+indications&as=GO
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