Sulfhemoglobinemia and Acute Hemolytic Anemia with Heinz Bodies Following Contact with a Fungicide— Zinc Ethylene Bisdithiocarbamate—in a Subject with Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency and Hypocatalasemia

Sulfhemoglobinemia associated with Heinz body formation and acute hemolytic anemia following contact with a fungicide, zinc ethylene bisdithiocarbamate, is described in a Persian Jew whose red blood cells had low glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity with low and unstable reduced glutathione and low catalase activity.

The fungicide, similarly to acetylphenylhydrazine, was capable of decreasing in vitro the reduced glutathione of the patient’s red blood cells, as well as of those of other subjects with the same enzymatic defect.

The sulfhemoglobinemia and the hemolytic anemia are considered to have been produced independently by the fungicide, the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency having played a role only in the latter. The possibility that the hypocatalasemia was a factor in rendering the patient’s red blood cells sensitive to the hemolysis- and sulfhemoglobin-producing action of the fungicide is discussed.

The importance of zinc ethylene bisdithiocarbamate as a sulfhemoglobin-producing and hemolytic agent is stressed, in view of the widespread use of this fungicide.