Eccrine-nevus (author''s transl)

The eccrine nevus is an exceptional entity, formed by well-differentiated adnexa which can be classified as hamartoma or organoid nevus. It is characterized by a high degree of structural maturation. The authors report a case of eccrine nevus observed in a 32-year-old woman and compare clinical and histological features of the lesion with literature data.     

Boston corset (author''s transl)

Nine cases of bilateral femoral shaft fractures were seen in a series of 126 patients treated from 1973--1977. Patients were multitrauma cases from automobile accidents. Treatment by traction followed by cast-bracing resulted in a high percentage of unsatisfactory results, lengthy recoveries, and the necessity of secondary surgical procedures to improve the results.     

Kleinschmidt''s syndrome (author''s transl)

This is a case-report about a 4 year old boy with "cherry red" epiglottis, purulent meningitis and pleuropneumonia. Purulent meningitis and pleuropneumonia are not complications of treatment of "cherry red" epiglottis but an entity caused by Hemophilus influenzae-infection and is called Kleinschmidt's syndrome (Hemophilus influenzae type B-infection-syndrome). This severe illness is successfully treated if recognized early enough. At present, chloramphenicol is the therapy of choice. Intubation or tracheotomy are important but supportive measures.     

Sacro-iliac osteochondritis (author''s transl)

Sacro-iliac osteochondritis is difficult to recognize, it is rather frequently a case of diagnosis by elimination, which can be only confirmed by the course. Its prognosis is excellent. The predominance of lesions on the iliac edge reflects the affinity of this epiphysitis for the accessory iliac ossification point.     

Vesicorenal reflux (author''s transl)

Antireflux procedures show high efficiency and relatively few technical complications. A tabulated comparison between the intravesical procedure (Politano-Leadbetter) and the extravesical procedure (Lich-Grégoir) reveals an overall success rate of 80%. To simplify the nomenclature, the term primary refluxing ureter is suggested for cases with a freely draining IVP and primary obstructive ureter for a dye collumnating dilated ureter. The indication for antirefluxplasty is divided into urgent cases and those with secondary priority, with immunologic tests providing helpful criteria.     

Bull''s-eye disease (author''s transl)

Thiamine deficiency was produced in young rats by feeding a thiamine deficient diet. At a time when neurological symptoms were severe, and cardiac and renal transketolase activities were decreased, the animals were sacrificed. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase activities, and flux through the pentose phosphate pathway were similar in pair-fed control and thiamine deficient rats. These data suggest that altered pentose phosphate pathway activity is not a vital feature of murine thiamine deficiency.     

Seckel syndrom (author''s transl)

The radiophysical properties of the material "Masonit" are examined by experimental methods. Indications are given as to atomic composition, density, effective atomic number, concentration of electrons, and linear attenuation coefficient. A comparison with water shows that "Masonit" is a suitable phantom material especially for the purposes of radiotherapy.     

Hallucinantion and illusion (author''s transl)

The value of an anaesthetic attachment during the first two postgraduate years is considered under three major headings, the value to the recent graduate, the value to the specialty, and the value to the community. The anaesthetic attachment offers all recent graduates an opportunity to perfect practical skills which should from part of the armamentarium of all doctors, and for some there is the option to acquire the ability to administer a safe anaesthetic. Exposure to the specialty at this time is important for recruitment to the specialist ranks.     

Otitis externa trichophytica (author''s transl)

A comparison of the plasma levels of tetracycline obtained whilst taking standard therapeutic doses of Tetrabid-Organon was made in twelve healthy volunteers. Two standard production batches were used in the study which was conducted under double-blind conditions. Sampling 12 hours and 8 hours after dosing showed no significant differences in plasma levels, with each batch. Even at these lowest levels satisfactory concentrations were rapidly obtained following initial administration, and were maintained when the drug was given at 12-hourly intervals. No side-effects of the drug were noted.     

Hemihypertrophy with wiedemann-Beckwith-syndrome (author''s transl)

Immunosuppressive agents were used to determine the relative importance of T and B lymphocytes in conferring protection to mice vaccinated with a live gal E mutant of Salmonella typhimurium, strain G30D. Lymphocyte transformation and serum agglutination tests showed that while cyclophosphamide (CPA) suppressed B lymphocytes, antilymphocyte sea (ALS) suppressed both T and B cells. The humoral response of vaccinated animals treated with ALS was therefore supplemented by the i.v. injection of serum from untreated vaccinated mice. CPA-treated mice could not control multiplication of the vaccinal strain which eventually killed them. There was little multiplication of the vaccinal strain in the controls and ALS-treated mice, all of which survived to challenge. The vaccinated controls and vaccinated ALS treated groups each survived infection with the challenge strain which was gradually eliminated. It was concluded that humoral immunity was of greater importance than cellular immunity in mice vaccinated i.p. with strain G30D.     

Congenital arteriovenous shunts (author''s transl)

In 95 women taking reduced-level-oral contraceptives and in 24 same-aged women controls, the measure of erythrocyte and serum folate led to the following conclusions: 1) Folate levels in women consuming the pill were generally found to be of the same range as those of controls. 2) No significant difference could be shown between results for different kinds of contraceptives.     

Angiography in coxarthrosis (author''s transl)

The preparation of 125I-labelled tracer for digoxin radioimmunoassay (125I monoiodinated 3-succinyl digoxigenin-1-tyrosine) is described, and its performance in radioimmunoassay of plasma samples is compared with that obtained with tritiated digoxin. The accuracy levels were assessed through the evaluation of different potential sources of systematic errors, such as interference from digoxin-related molecules and plasma proteins and methodological artefacts possibly associated with the immunocomplex instability, and through a series of checks including the recovery and parallelism tests and the correspondence of results obtained with the two tracers. The slope and the repeatability with time of the calibration curves and the spread of replicate estimates were taken into consideration to assess the assay precision. An essential equivalence in terms of reliability of measurement was proved for the two methodological variants, so that practical aspects and economic factors remain the main criteria to evaluate the relative merits: from this point of view, the advantages of using 125I-labelled tracer, as an alternative to tritiated digoxin, are discussed.     

Pseudo pectus excavatum (author''s transl)

Seventy seven angioleiomyomata from 75 patients, 19 males and 55 females, are reviewed. One patient had 2 lesions and another a local recurrence after surgical excision. Only 3 were less than 20 years old and most were beyond 30 (average age 47). Fifty four lesions were on the lower limbs, 4 on the head and legs), 9 on the upper limbs, 4 on the head and 1 on the trunk. The size of the lesions varied from a pepper grain to a pigeon egg but most were pea sized. The more significant symptom was pain, present in at least 58% of the lesions, and responsible for the diagnosis, often made, of neurofibroma, neuroma, glomus tumour and leiomyoma. Its intensity was variable and could be induced by mechanical or thermal stimuli or even arise spontaneously. Histologically the tumour was usually a deep dermal or hypodermal, well defined, ovoid or round shaped, compact nodule, composed of smooth muscle fibers often disposed around variously shaped vascular lumina. Clinical and histological similarities to glomus tumours as well as the occasional coexistence of both lesions point to a common origin from the myoarterial glomus or from a closely related arteriovenous anastomosis. The relevant features in our series are compared with those reported in the literature and their similarities and differences are discussed.     

The clinical olfactogram (author''s transl)

Sera from patients with acute hepatitis, cirrhosis or chronic hepatitis, as well as sera from healthy carriers and controls were examined for HBS antigen, DNA polymerase activity and for antibodies to HBS, HBC and DNA polymerase. The data presented suggest that in acute hepatitis the DNA polymerase test enabled us to diagnose at least 20% more cases of hepatitis B than with the RIA but that the DNA polymerase test is of little value for the screening of blood donors since all the healthy carriers gave negative results. As concerns the antibodies to DNA polymerase they appeared in at least 50% of the patients with acute hepatitis, they were transient and only detectable at the early beginning of the disease. These antibodies were also found to be different from the anti-HBS and anti-HBC antibodies.     

Spectrophotometrical determination of paprika-pigments (author''s transl)

3-Methyl-4-thia-cyclohexylsulfamic acid was synthesized, the degree of sweetness of its sodium salt was measured, and compared with that of the sodium salts of 3-methyl-cyclohexylsulfamic acid, 4-thia-cyclohexylsulfamic acid, and cyclohexylsulfamic acid.     

Prophylactic psychotherapy of addiction (author''s transl)

In a cohort of 50,282 pregnancies 19 children with cardiovascular defects were born to 1042 women who received female hormones during early pregnancy (18.2 per 1000). Among 49,240 children not exposed in utero to these agents there were 385 with cardiovascular malformations (7.8 per 1000). Six children with cardiovascular defects were born to a sub-group of 278 women who used oral contraceptives during early pregnancy (21.5 per 1000). After the data were controlled for a wide variety of potentially confounding factors by multivariate methods, the association between in utero exposure to female hormones and cardiovascular birth defects was statistically significant.     

A case of trichotillomania (author''s transl)

Five episodes of transient monocular blindness during a six-month period occurred in a 42-year-old black man who had sickle cell trait. Other than the hemoglobin abnormality no cause for the transient monocular blindness was determined.     

Viral carcinogenesis of brain (author''s transl)

To test the hypothesis that intarpartum acidosis has a role in the etiology of hyaline membrane disease (HMD), blood was collected from the umbilical artery (UA) at birth from 110 premature infants and analyzed for hydrogen ion concentration ([H+]), PCO2, standard bicarbonate, and lactic acid. The infants were followed until a definite diagnosis was made of HMD (33 infants), type II respiratory distress syndrome (16 infants) or the absence of respiratory distress (61 infants). In general, infants with HMD were more premature and had lower Apgar scores than nondistressed infants; however, there were no significant differences between the two groups in any acid-base measurement. Only in those patients of 32 to 37 weeks' gestational age was it possible to detect a significant increase in UA [H+] in infants with HMD compared to those without respiratory distress. There was evidence that the reduced Apgar score of infants with HMD may be due to immaturity and abnormal pulmonary function secondary to lung disease. It is concluded that acidosis at birth is not a factor in the development of HMD except possibly in more mature infants.