Increase of renal excretion of organo-mercury compounds like methlymercury by DMPS (2,3-Dimercapto-1-propanesulfonic acid, Dimaval®)

In a highly mercury-burdened, small scale gold mining area in the Philippines, spontaneous urine samples were taken from 75 Hg intoxicated volunteers before (U1), and 2-3 hours after (U2) the oral application of 200 mg DMPS (2,3-Dimercapto-1-propanesulfonic acid, Dimaval). In the urine samples, the concentrations of organic and inorganic bound mercury were determined separately by CV-AAS. In U1, median concentrations of 15.7 microg inorganic Hg/g crea. and 2.2 microg organic Hg/g crea. were found. In U2, these values increased to 262 for inorganic Hg and 14.5 for organic Hg. Maximum concentrations (microg/g crea.) as high as 7,593 for inorganic Hg and 2,011 for organic Hg were observed after DMPS. The mean (median) increasing factor (U2/U1) was 16.0 for inorganic Hg and 5.1 for organic Hg. There was a trend that females responded better to DMPS than males. It was concluded that DMPS increases the renal excretion of organic bound Hg as it does for inorganic Hg, but to a lesser extent.