Shot in the gut

A mystifying case of lead poisoning, which may have lasted more than a decade, ultimately resolved itself—but not before teaching two Swedish physicians how difficult it can be diagnose its cause.

In January 2002, Per Gustavsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and Lars Gerhardsson of Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Göteborg saw a 45-year-old patient with substantially elevated lead in her blood.