Manifestations of Organ Toxicity

The biochemical events following exposure to a toxic agent generally result in clinical manifestations or symptoms. These symptoms may be characteristic of the particular physiological process or organ system thus affected. Often multiple symptoms associated with the toxicological events indicate that more than one system is affected. Virtually all physiological processes and organ systems in the body are subject to toxic effects. Thus one must understand that all these symptoms are interrelated, so that toxic injury to the primary target may have repercussions in other systems. This is particularly true of damage to the central nervous and hematopoietic systems (Concon, 1988).