A Scombroid Poisoning Causing a Life-Threatening Acute Pulmonary Edema and Coronary Syndrome in a Young Healthy Patient

Scombroid poisoning, also called histamine fish poisoning, is an allergy-like form of food poisoning that represents one of the major problems in seafood safety. It consists in a clinical syndrome associated with consumption of fish and, less frequently, cheese containing high levels of histamine [1, 2]. Usually certain families of dark meat fish are involved, mainly Scombroidae and Scomberesocidae (e.g., tuna, mackerel, skipjack, Bonito, and Cero). Other nonscombroid fish (e.g., mahi-mahi, herring, anchovies, sardines, Australian salmon, swordfish) was also reported to be associated with scombroid fish poisoning [1-5]. High fish histamine concentrations have been found responsible for this kind of poisoning. Histamine and histamine-like substances are generated from histidine by a decarboxylase activity of bacteria such as Proteus, Klebsiella, Aerobacter, Serratia, Enterobacter, and Escherichia coli [6, 7]. The presence of this bacteria and the massive histamine production detected in the fish is usually secondary to contamination of handlers and improper refrigeration [7]. The clinical presentation is generally characterized by flushing, rash, swelling of face or tongue, sweating, headache, dizziness, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, palpitations, respiratory distress, and hypotension. The onset of symptoms generally occurs few minutes after ingestion of contaminated food. Usually the course is selflimiting and antihistamines can be used to relieve symptoms. We report a rare case of a life-threatening scombroid poisoning with myocardial ischemia and acute pulmonary edema after tuna ingestion. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.