[The incidence of poisoning by Karwinskia humboldtiana in Mexico].

Intoxication produced by Karwinskia humboldtiana presents a neurological picture similar to that of poliomyelitis, Guillain-Barré syndrome or other polyradiculoneuritis with which it is frequently confused. The purpose of this paper is to report the frequency of this intoxication, by means of the antecedent of ingestion of the fruit and the detection of toxins in blood using a thin layer chromatography method. One hundred fifty four samples of cases with acute flaccid paralysis from 18 states of the country were received. The antecedent of ingestion in 56 of them was corroborated and the detection was positive in 50 of these. In 98 patients there was not antecedent of ingestion and detection was negative in 95 of them. We estimated that the sensibility and specificity of detection method are 89% and 96.9% respectively.