[Usefulness of suction tube rectal biopsy in pediatrics].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C L Morin.
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A child with cryptogenic cirrhosis underwent a third session of elective sclerotherapy. Endoscopic therapy consisted of intravascular injection of ethanolamine oleate in varices newly developed at the midesophagus level. Irreversible paraplegia was documented within 8 hr postoperatively. Two years later she eventually died from gastrointestinal bleeding. Autopsy findings were compatible with an infarct of the spinal cord secondary to an occlusion of the anterior spinal artery. Various hypotheses which might explain the passage of the sclerosing material from the esophagus to the anterior spinal artery include: arterial occlusion secondary to venous thrombosis and spinal cord necrosis, accidental injection in an intercostal artery or azygous vein through the esophageal wall, the presence of a congenital arteriovenous fistula or the opening of arteriovenous shunt. Paravasal injection of dilute sclerosing agent might protect against this unusual but dramatic complication.
BALB/c mice lack a corpus callosum in about 11% of the population. Two inbred substrains of BALB/c mice, epilepsy-prone (EP) and epilepsy-resistant (ER), have been examined to determine whether these substrains differ in regard to corpus callosum morphology. Further, this study addressed the issue of whether misrouted cortical axons form an aberrant pathway instead of the corpus callosum. Initial studies that examined fresh brain tissue of adult animals revealed normal corpora callosa in all ER mice but deficient or absent corpora callosa in all EP mice. Subsequently, Dil crystals were placed in the motor cortices of aldehyde-fixed brains of 2-week-old animals to investigate cortical projections in both inbred substrains of mice. Fluorescent microscopy revealed that all of the ER animals had normal corpora callosa, whereas all EP animals exhibited either reduced corpora callosa (partially callosal) or an absence (acallosal) of this structure. Both acallosal and partially callosal EP mice displayed an extensive, aberrant projection to the basal forebrain as well as bilateral projections to midline and intralaminar thalamic nuclei. The fibers projecting to the basal forebrain arose from the cortex, coursed toward the midline before turning ventrally along the midline, and appeared to terminate in the medial septal nucleus and the nucleus of the diagonal band. ER animals lacked this aberrant cortical projection to the basal forebrain. Electron microscopic results obtained from EP mice indicated that labeled axons in this aberrant pathway formed axosomatic, axodendritic, and axospinous synapses with the neurons in the medial septal/diagonal band complex. The function of the aberrant projection to the basal forebrain remains unknown but it may provide an abnormal excitatory input to a region that provides cholinergic and GABAergic input to the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. The additional projections to midline and contralateral intralaminar thalamic nuclei in EP mice may function to intensify the synchronization of bilateral discharges.
Ten pediatric patients, aged 8.5-19 years, with active symptomatic Crohn's disease, received a three-week period of continuous elemental enteral alimentation with no other form of treatment. All patients in this study were selected according to the following criteria, which were applied consecutively: (1) newly diagnosed patients with no previous treatment for Crohn's disease, (2) disease activity index over 200, and (3) no complication requiring surgery. All patients experienced a clinical remission and improved their immunologic and nutritional status during the elemental enteral alimentation. The mean disease activity index for the whole group was 307.0 +/- 23.6 (range: 203 to 413) before and 69.2 +/- 11.4 (range: 15 to 114) after the feeding period. Significant increases in body weight, triceps skinfold, mid-arm circumference, serum transferrin and mean percentage of T lymphocytes were also observed. Following cessation of enteral alimentation, a small declining dose of prednisone was used during a one-year follow-up period. Eight of the ten patients were still in clinical remission three months after the feeding period and their nutritional status had continued to improve during that period of time.