Chlorophyllum molybdites poisoning on Reunion Island.

In France, mushroom picking is part of the culture. The practice is not without risk, as around 1300 people are poisoned each year by eating wild mushrooms on the French mainland. However, this practice is not part of local culture on Reunion Island, a French territory located in the Indian Ocean. Indeed, there are practically no reports of mushroom poisoning on Reunion Island. Here we describe, through a retrospective study, cases of mushroom poisoning recorded in the Indian Ocean toxicosurveillance system database from 2020 to 2021. Overall, 19 people were poisoned following wild mushroom ingestion on Reunion Island: 15 in 2020 and 4 in 2021. Six events were recorded: the majority of poisonings involved clusters (n = 5) during a shared meal (pan-fried), only one case was single mushroom poisoning by ingesting a raw mushroom. Of all patients, 15 cases presented a gastrointestinal irritant syndrome (latency between 30 min and 3 h). Chlorophyllum molybdites was positively identified by mycologists in 4 cases, suspected by emergency doctor in 1 case and in one self-declared case, Volvariella volvacea was consumed. Poisoning following ingestion of wild mushrooms does occur on Reunion Island, and Chlorophyllum molybdites is the main culprit.

Cyclopeptide mushroom poisoning: A retrospective series of 204 patients.

Cyclopeptide mushroom poisoning is responsible for 90%-95% of deaths from macrofungi ingestion. The main objectives of this study are to describe cases of cyclopeptide mushroom poisoning and to determine risk factors that may influence the severity/mortality of poisoned patients. We included all cases of amatoxin toxicity reported to two French Poison Centers from 2013 through 2019. We compared the severity with the Poison Severity Score (PSS) and the outcomes of patients using simple logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression. We included 204 cases of amatoxin toxicity. More than three-quarters developed an increase in AST and/or ALT (78.1%), and over half developed a decrease in prothrombin ratio (<70%: 53%) and/or Factor V (<70%: 54%). One-third developed an acute renal injury (AKI). Twelve patients (5.9%) developed post-poisoning sequelae (persistent kidney injury more than 1 month after ingestion and liver transplant). Five patients (2.5%) received a liver transplant, and nine died (4.4%). The mean time to onset of digestive disorders was shorter in PSS2 and PSS3-4 patients (10.9 ± 3.9/11.3 ± 6.3 h) than in PSS1 patients (14 ± 6.5 h; p < 0.05). Patients who died or developed post-poisoning sequelae had more frequent cardiovascular comorbidities compared with recovered patients (60.0% versus 29.5%; p < 0.01).