Alfred Sundal

Anaemia Hypoplastica Congenita (Anaemia Typus Josephs-Diamond-Blackfan). Report of a Case Treated with Adrenocorticotropin with Effect

A case of anaemia typus Josephs‐Diamond‐Blackfan in a 4 year old girl has been described. She has been dependent on regular blood transfusions with short intervals, most frequently of 4–6 weeks. The clinical features were typical, with a marked reticulocytopenia as the most striking haematological finding. After two courses with ACTH treatment was a marked increase in the reticulocyte count, both times occurring on the 9th day after starting the treatment, with a duration of several weeks, accompanied by a spontaneous remission of the blood values, and thus the intervals between the transfusions have been prolonged for 15 weeks.

A Creatinin Tolerance Test for Renal Function

The creatinin slope in blood plasma after an oral creatinin load is a test which. gives important information about kidney function. Without needing urine collection–a procedure often difficult in infants and also in some cases with urinary disease even when collected by catheter–the blood creatinin fall gives values corresponding to the exogenous creatinin clearance test, and also to the endogenous creatinin clearance test, provided the patient is not in a pre‐oedematous or oedematous stage. The author gives the values for creatinin fall in the blood in healthy children and in patients with decreased kidney function after an empirically chosen creatinin load.

Diabetes Mellitus with Retardation of Growth and Enlargement of the Liver

The patients grandfather had had diabetes for a few years. His father had pulmonary tuberculosis in 1934. The mother and a younger child are healthy. The patients diabetes commenced in April 1934 with polyuria, polydipsia, increasing lassitude and loss of weight. He was then 2 years and 4 months old. Previous to this he had been well. 111 the beginning of June 1934 he was admitted to the county hospital in a comatose state. In 5 days time the coma disappeared, and the child was transferred to the Childrens Dept. o f the Kikshospital Oslo. His general condition was then good. He was not drowsy. Respiration normal. Fauces, lungs and heart normal. The abdomen was large, and the lower margiii of the liver was felt as a sharp edge a t the umbilical level. Spleen not palpable. l n the course of 10 days time the patients diabetes was controlled on a diet consisting of 30 Gm. Protein, X ( i Gin. Fat aiid <50 Gm. Carbohydrate. Total caloric value 1 OH4 (’al. He required 1 ‘ / z unit1 insulin daily. On discharge the urine contained no sugar, nor any acetone. Fasting bloodsugar (.a. 100 mGm.% Tuberculin test negative. The lirer was of the same size on discharge as 011 admission. Bjarne J. born ‘/,I 1931.

Osteopetrosis Clinical and post-mortem examination of two cases

become normal and the hypoprothrombinemia persisted. One patient was treated with BIZ. The distribution curve became normal, the prothrombinvalues remained low. This patient then received 100 Gm liver daily by mouth for four weeks, during which period the distribution of red blood cell diameters remained normal but the prothrombin index was not normalized. The results of examinations after treatment of these patients diverge in part from those found after treatment of pernicious anzmia in adults. I t has been shown by Owren (International Congress of Hematology, Buffalo, N.Y.) that in pernicious anEmia the prothrombin index rises to normal values following treatment with liver. Owren and Larsen have demonstrated persisting macrocytosis up to 30-40 per cent of the erythrocytes after treatment with vitamin B 12.

5. BIRTH WEIGHT/GESTATIONAL AGE IN PREMATURE NEWBORN INFANTS:Influence of Toxaemia of Pregnancy. »Small for Date» Newborn Infants. Neonatal Hypoglycaemia.

HYPOglycaemia In the Childrens Hospital, Bergen, gestational age and birth weight have been registered in all patients admitted with a birth weight of 2500 g or less in the years 1967-1968-1969. The results have been plotted against the Lubchenco percentile scheme showing the foetal weight according to gestational age. (Table 1.) Our material consists of 323 newborn infants. Sixty-one were twins or triplets which have been excluded as their foetal weight deviate from those of singletons. The material, therefore, consists of 262 singletons. Forty of these infants were born to mothers with toxaemia of pregnancy, while 222 were born to mothers without toxaemia.

Hormone treatment of the incompletely descended testicle.

Incomplete descent of the testicle should be treated in childhood, preferably from the age of eight upwards. Injections of gonadotrope hormones should be given these patients if the testicle retention is not accompanied by evident pathologic anatomic complications, such as hernia and hydrocele which indicate surgical treatment. Hormone treatment gives very good results with testicle retention where the testicle can be felt in or below the subcutaneous groin ring. The result may be less satisfactory in cases of cryptorchidism as the retention is often complicated by hernia or atrophied testicle. If the hormone cure fails, immediate operation is advised, as the hormone treatment loosens the tissue around the testicle and the testicle veins so that the testicle can more easily be brought into position.