Abstract
Oral ingestion of a new rat poison that antagonizes nicotinamide metabolism, N-3-pyridylmethyl-N′-p-nitrophenyl urea (PNU, Vacor), is known to cause diabetes mellitus. I describe neurologic complications of PNU ingestion in 12 patients 19 to 50 years of age who swallowed between 0.39 and 7.02 g of PNU. One died within a day, and five died of chronic complications 40 to 182 days after taking the poison.