Gunnar Engleson

Alkyl Mercury Poisoning

This paper describes a case of organic mercury poisoning in a child from a mercury‐intoxicated family. The condition has not hitherto been reported among children. The child was poisoned after eating porridge prepared from flour which had been treated with an dkyl mercury compound, panogen, which is used by farmers in seed dressing. The main clinical signs and symptoms are due to severe damage to brain tissue, and thus differ from the parenchymatous lesions resulting from inorganic mercury poisoning. Treatment with BAL was of doubtful value.

Long-term dietary treatment of tyrosinosis†

A boy with early signs of tyrosinosis has been treated with a diet low in tyrosine and phenylalanine for 31/2 years. The clinical and biochemical effects of this treatment, which was started when the child was 22 months old, are described.

A follow-up study of premature infants treated with low oxygen tension.

Although no final conclusion may be drawn as to the value of treatment of premature infants in low oxygen tension the present results speak in favour of this treatment.

Red Cell Glucose‐6‐Phosphate Dehydrogenase and Glutathion Stability in Neonatal Hyperbilirubinaemia

Between March 1961 and March 1962 the activity of G‐6‐P‐D of the erythrocytes from normal and jaundiced newborns was assayed with the aid of a semiquantitative screen test. During the latter half of the investigation, Beutlers GSH Stability Test was also used. The material consisted of normal, non‐icteric newborns and of newborns with varying degrees of hyperbilirubinaemia of unknown aetiology. Sixteen out of these had maximal serum bilirubin values of 20 mg/100 ml or more and 62 had serum bilirubin values between 15 and 20 mg/100 ml. No certain case with deficient G‐6‐P‐D activity in the erythrocytes has been found.

Toxoplasmosis in Children. With reference to one particular case

The writer gives an account of a typical case of congenital toxoplasmosis of a girl 2½ years old.

Basophil Leucocytes and Heparinoid Substances in Diabetes Mellitus

The present investigation showed a reduction in the content of heparinoid substances in the blood in the late vascular complications of diabetes. This finding suggests the occurrence, in diabetic angiopathy, of a disorder pathogenetically similar to that in atherosclerosis. The decrease found in the amount of heparinoid substances in the blood cannot be explained by a change in the number of basophil leucocytes, which are normal in diabetes mellitus. The number of cases, however, is not large and further investigations are in progress.

Studies of a Toxoplasmotic Family.: Sulfathiazole Prophylaxis.

As is known, toxoplasmosis occurs in a subclinical form, in which the presence of neutralizing antibodies in the blood is the only sign of the disease. This inapparent form may be preexistent in mothers and other relatives of children suffering from toxoplasmosis. I n such a family the risk that subsequent children will acquire clinically demonstrable toxoplasmosis is regarded as rather small, though it does undoubtedly exist (I). The writer has given an account earlier (3) of a case of toxoplasmosis in a 3 l j 2 year old girl who is still living and whose parents and maternal grandmother had antibodies against toxoplasma in their blood. At the time of the examination the mother of this patient was pregnant again, and it was decided that she should be treated with sulfathiazole with a view to mitigating or preventing an intrauterine toxoplasma infection of the foetus. Earlier reports of the results obtained with such treatment are scanty. Experience from animal experiments suggests that preparations belonging to the sulfonamide group have toxoplasinicidal properties (3). JOHNSSON (4) and associates have described a case in which sulfonamide therapy was tried during pregnancy, the subject being a woman who had clinical toxoplamosis with retinochorioiditis. No effect on the ocular changes could be observed, but abortion had t o be performed to preserve the patient’s sight. The data concerning the placenta and foetus are incomplete. It would therefore perhaps not be out of place to submit a short report of the following case.

DBI Therapy in Juvenile Diabetes

The deafness in these 11 cases appeared to be due to different causes. According to the curve showing the 1131 uptake by the thyroid gland 5 appear to be perhaps of the group Pendreds syndrome. The mothers of 3 patients had been treated during the pregnancy with sulpha drugs because of urinary tract infections. In 3 cases neonatal middle ear infection appeared to be perhaps a contributory cause of the deafness. A more detailed study of these children is in progress. An otological examination and follow-up is recommended in the case of hypothyroid children, especially if they have goitres. This affords a possibility, int. al. of mitigating some of the speech disturbances which so often prove a handicap to these children.