Mercury intolerance and lymphocyte transformation test with nickel sulfate, palladium chloride, mercuric chloride, and gold sodium thiosulfate.

The peripheral lymphocytes of 10 patients referred to as mercury intolerant and 9 patients referred to as tolerant with regard to presence or absence of psychosomatic symptoms when percutaneously exposed to low patch test doses of mercury were stimulated in vitro with four metal salts. In addition, cells from 7 subjects with no anamnestic mercury intolerance or allergy to metals as well as free from dental alloys were included as controls. Lymphocyte transformation test was done by in vitro challenge with five concentrations of gold sodium thiosulfate, nickel chloride, palladium chloride, and seven concentrations of mercuric chloride. Stimulation with palladium chloride and mercuric chloride showed a difference between the mercury-intolerant and -tolerant patients on one hand and the controls on the other, but there was no difference between the two patient groups. With regard to nickel sulfate, there was a significant dose-dependent stimulation in all the three groups but no difference between the groups could be seen. Gold sodium thiosulfate did not stimulate the lymphocytes at all. Based on these results, we therefore conclude that lymphocyte transformation test performed with the four metal salts cannot be used to further differentiate between mercury-intolerant and -tolerant patients.