cyanide

cyanide /cy·a·nide/ (si´ah-nīd)

1. a compound containing the cyanide group (—CN) or ion (CN−).

2. hydrogen cyanide.

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cy·a·nide (s-nd) or cy·a·nid (-nd)

n.

Any of various salts or esters of hydrogen cyanide containing a CN group, especially the extremely poisonous compounds potassium cyanide and sodium cyanide.

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cyanide

a binary compound of cyanogen. Some inorganic compounds, such as cyanide salts, potassium cyanide and sodium cyanide, are important in industry for extracting gold and silver from their ores and in electroplating. Other cyanide compounds are used in the manufacture of synthetic rubber and textiles. Cyanides are also used in pesticides.

There are many potential sources of cyanide in the environment of farm animals. Cyanide poisoning occurs most commonly when cattle gain access to a bulk supply of a cyanogenetic plant, e.g. sudan grass, immature sorghum. Typical clinical signs are dyspnea within a few minutes of getting access to the food, restlessness, recumbency and death within a matter of 15 minutes to 2 hours. The cyanide is not free in the plants but is combined with a glycoside radical and must be degraded by ruminal enzymes to release its HCN. Called also hydrocyanic acid. See cyanogenetic glycosides.

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cyanide

Toxicology A reactive ion–CN– with a high affinity for metal ions–eg, iron of cytochrome oxidase; in vivo, cyanide usually exists as a salt–eg, hydrogen cyanide–HCN, KCN, etc Lab Mean cyanide concentration of victims who died in fatal fires in one study was 116 µmol/L, and 22 µmol/L in those who lived; serum T_1⁄2 for HCN is 1 hr; plasma lactate levels in those who died was 29 mmol/L; lactate levels correlate well with HCN levels and may serve as a surrogate marker Management Agents used to treat cyanide poisoning, include those that transform Hb to metHb, which avidly binds cyanide; this maneuver is limited by metHb's ferric state–Fe3+, which cannot bind O₂, and at > 30% exacerbates tissue hypoxia caused by the cyanides