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Prevention of pressure sores by identifying patients at risk.

The risk of pressure sores developing in patients admitted with acute conditions was assessed by a simple risk score system based on age, reduced mobility, incontinence, pronounced emaciation, redness over bony prominences, unconsciousness, dehydration, and paralysis in a prospective clinical study. During seven months in 1977, 600 of 3571 patients were classified as at risk. Of these 35 (5.8%) developed sores compared with five (0.2%) of those not at risk. The results of this study compared with those over the same period in 1976 show that close observation of at-risk patients and early detection of pressure sores prevents their development.

Age Factors↗

Massive resection of the small intestine after occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery.

Resection of all the small intestine but the proximal 8 in. of jejunum was performed in an elderly woman. Intestinal function tests revealed an extensive defect of absorption. The patient died nine months after the operation in a state of extreme emaciation. Necropsy revealed hypertrophy of the remnant of small intestine and intense fatty degeneration of the liver.

Aged↗

Medical treatment of ulcerative colitis: scoring the advances.

Recently, oenological prejudices were challenged by the use of a points scoring system (from 50 to 100) to evaluate wine in a book now widely regarded as one of the most authoritative. On this scale, a 1981 Chateau Citran described as 'emaciated' scored 65, a 1983 Chateau Kirwan scored 85, and a 1982 Petrus 100. If the same approach were used for drugs used in ulcerative colitis to quantify an advance over conditions existing at the time of its introduction how would they score? Because they were the first available drugs in their class and clearly constituted major advances, corticosteroids and sulphasalazine both score 95, the score being limited by a high level of side effects. The new salicylates score 75, because they extend the benefits of sulphasalazine to a minority of patients but they have the potential to score 90 if increased dosing and greater effectiveness over sulphasalazine can be achieved. Salicylate enemas score 80, because they advance treatment over topical corticosteroids for patients with resistant distal disease, but the mode of delivery needs improvement. Steroid foams also score 80, particularly if the patient's vote is taken into account. Azathioprine's score cannot be calculated because there is doubt over its efficacy, but it is potentially 88 if it saves patients with difficult disease from colectomy. We can only guess what an oral non-absorbed steroid would score, but if response rates for relapse were substantially improved, or if corticosteroids could be used as effective maintenance treatment, it could be as high as 95. There are indications that we should 'watch this space'.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗

Rescue of the remnants: the British emergency medical relief operation in Belsen Camp 1945.

The British Army liberated the German concentration camp at Belsen on April 15, 1945. The thousands of inmates (estimates range from 60,000 to 78,900 inmates), mostly Jews from eastern Europe, were dying at a rate of 500-600 per day from disease, and many more were being killed by the German guards and co-workers. Diseases prevalent included typhus, tuberculosis, nutritional and infective diarrhoea, severe malnutrition and starvation, and others. Despite huge obstacles including the ongoing war effort, shortages of supplies, and limited numbers of workers, a relief operation was rapidly organized to control the typhus epidemic and salvage as many inmates as possible. The 10,000 emaciated corpses which had been lying all over the camp were collected and buried in mass graves. Inmates were disinfected with D.D.T., scrubbed in a "human laundry," and evacuated from the typhus-ridden Horror Camp (Camp 1) to a hospital organized in the barracks of the Panzer Training School (Camp 2). Feeding of the inmates was carefully regulated, and some basic medical treatment organized. The relief operation was performed by British Army units, detachments of the British Red Cross, British and Belgian medical students, and other volunteers including those from among the less debilitated inmates. Although 13,000 inmates died after the liberation despite the relief operation, thousands of others were rescued.

Emergency Medical Services↗

LSD 'flashback' as a cause of diagnostic error.

An emaciated, but otherwise physically normal young man presented with an acute psychosis resembling hallucinogenic drug abuse. His behaviour was so strange that the underlying pathology of severe pyloric stenosis was only detected when a chance measurement of urea and electrolytes was made, revealing gross biochemical abnormalities. His abnormal mental state persisted for more than one week and an LSD 'flashback' was postulated as the cause of the prolonged psychosis

Adult↗

Fever, hepatosplenomegaly and pancytopenia in a patient living in the Mediterranean region.

A 24 year old woman living in the Mediterranean region of Turkey present with a three-month history of weight loss and irregular fever that was peaking at 40 degrees C with shivering. No definite aetiology could be identified in a local hospital. A bacterial infection had been suspected, but antibiotic therapy, at first with sulbactam-ampicillin and later with azithromycin, had no influence on the fever. Physical examination revealed an emaciated patient with fever (39 degrees C), pallor, and hepatosplenomegaly (spleen 9 cm and liver 5 cm palpable below the costal margin). No peripheral lymphadenopathy was present. The laboratory examinations are summarised in the table. Notably, a prominent increase of macrophages containing intracellular micro-organisms (figures 1 and 2) was seen in the bone marrow smears. The same micro-organisms were also identified within the Kupffer cells in liver biopsy.

Adult↗

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis in the cat.

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infection in the cat is described. Clinical findings included inappetence, lethargy, rapid emaciation, jaundice and an enlarged left kidney. Chronic pseudotubercular lesions were found in the kidneys and lungs and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Type IIB was recovered from both sites.

Animals↗

Investigations of a flock heavily infected with maedi-visna virus.

Following the discovery that a flock of sheep in England was infected with the virus of maedi-virus, several seropositive sheep were brought to the Central Veterinary Laboratory and kept isolated and under observation for up to three years before being further examined at necropsy. Meanwhile, sheep in the infected flock which died or were culled were examined after death for evidence of the actual disease. At necropsy pulmonary disease was a common (although not always the sole) finding, the lesions being mostly chronic pasteurellosis and pulmonary adenomatosis. One of the 45 carcases examined showed classical lesions of advanced maedi. In four others, early or incipient lesions of maedi were found in otherwise normal lungs, while in three more, maedi was coincidental with the other pulmonary diseases. No clinical evidence to suggest maedi, other than emaciation, was seen in any of the sheep with lesions of the disease.

Animals↗

Probable infectious stunting syndrome in replacement pullets.

Infectious stunting is recorded in detail in three egg-type pullet flocks and one egg-type breeder flock. Three different strains of brown egg birds were involved. The clinical effects were less severe than those usually seen in broilers. Excessive mortality during the first three weeks was a feature of all four flocks. Fibrous atrophy of the pancreas was seen in one flock and could still be found in individual birds at 18 weeks old. Bone disorders were seen in two flocks. Severe anaemia was seen in some birds in one flock. Severe emaciation of the pectoral muscles was an unexplained and prominent feature of all the flocks. As the birds grew the visible and clinical evidence of stunting was much reduced and it appeared that compensatory growth took place so that by 18 weeks old the flocks appeared normal and the culling rate at caging was negligible.

Anemia↗

Mannosidosis in a litter of Persian cats.

Three kittens in a litter of Persian cats showed, from the age of eight weeks, tremor, ataxia, dysmetria, progressive weakness and emaciation. Cytoplasmic vacuolation was observed in neurons, mesenchymal and epithelial cells of tissues taken post mortem. The alpha-mannosidase activity of brain tissue of one cat tested was 4.8 per cent of control values and the urine of two cats contained large amounts of mannose-rich oligosaccharides.

Animals↗

Diseases in young farmed crocodiles in Irian Jaya.

Thirty-eight young crocodiles that were emaciated and were euthanased or were found dead on 12 farms in Irian Jaya were examined post mortem. Major diseases were coccidiosis (nine crocodiles), pentastomiasis (four), visceral gout (two) and bacterial pneumonia and septicaemia (two). Other diseases and infections were steatitis, fungal pneumonia, gastric capillariasis, haemogregarine infection, ascariasis, filarioid infection and the presence of flukes in the intestine, kidney and blood. Multiple parasitism due to the collection of hatchlings in the wild was considered the primary cause of the ill-thrift and death of the crocodiles.

Alligators and Crocodiles↗

Estimation of the liveweight and body condition of working donkeys in Morocco.

The age, sex, liveweight and body measurements (heart girth, umbilical girth, height, length from elbow to tuber ischii and circumference of the foreleg cannon bone) of 516 donkeys used to transport goods in Morocco were recorded. There were few donkeys over 12 years of age. For adult donkeys weighing from 74 to 252 kg, the best equation with only one variable for predicting liveweight was: liveweight (kg) = heart girth (cm)2.65/2188. The inclusion of two variables improved the prediction marginally, but the addition of further variables gave little further improvement. The best prediction equation for adult donkeys was: liveweight (kg) = (heart girth [cm]2.12 x length [cm]0.688)/380. For donkeys under three years of age, weighing from 52 to 128 kg, the best prediction equation was: liveweight (kg) = (umbilical girth [cm]1.41 x length [cm]1.09)/1000. Other liveweight prediction equations for donkeys and horses were tested on the data and tended to overestimate the weight of these working donkeys. A subjective method for assessing the body condition of the donkeys was developed, using a scale from 1 (emaciated) to 9 (obese).

Animals↗

Acid-fast bacterial infection and its control in guppies (Lebistes reticulatus) reared on an ornamental fish farm in Venezuela.

There was a spontaneous outbreak of mycobacteriosis in fancy veiltail guppies, Lebistes reticulatus, raised on an ornamental fish farm in Venezuela. The clinical signs included listlessness, emaciation, spinal curvature, sunken eyes and loss of colour. Numerous acid-fast bacteria, identified as Mycobacterium species, were detected in smears from the kidneys, liver, mesentery and spleen of the fish, from fresh faecal material, and from the unborn embryos of infected gravid females. The bacteria were eradicated by the addition of kanamycin sulphate to the water at a concentration of 50 ppm, the dose being repeated on four occasions with 48 hours between each dose. Fifteen days after the treatment, none of the clinical signs described were detected in any of the treated fish. The offspring born to treated females were healthy and normal, and did not harbour acid-fast bacteria.

Animals↗

Morbillivirus in common seals stranded on the coasts of Belgium and northern France during summer 1998.

Sixteen common seals (Phoca vitulina) were stranded on the Belgian and northern French coasts during the summer of 1998. Eleven (10 pups and one adult) were sampled for histopathological, immunohistochemical, serological, bacteriological, parasitological and virological investigations. The main gross findings were severe emaciation, acute haemorrhagic enteritis, acute pneumonia, interstitial pulmonary emphysema and oedema, and chronic ulcerative stomatitis. Microscopical lung findings were acute to subacute pneumonia with interstitial oedema and emphysema. Severe lymphocytic depletion was observed in lymph nodes. Severe acute to subacute meningoencephalitis was observed in one animal. Specific staining with two monoclonal antibodies directed against canine distemper virus (CDV) and phocine distemper virus was observed in a few lymphocytes in the spleen and lymph nodes of three seals. Anti-CDV neutralising antibodies were detected in sera from six animals. Seven of the seals were positive by reverse transcriptase-PCR for the morbillivirus phosphoprotein gene. The lesions observed were consistent with those in animals infected by a morbillivirus, and demonstrated that distemper has recently recurred in North Sea seals.

Animals↗

Evidence of infectious diseases in harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) hunted in the waters of Greenland and by-caught in the German North Sea and Baltic Sea.

The pathological, microbiological and serological findings in harbour porpoises hunted in Greenlandic waters were compared with the findings in animals accidentally caught in fishing gear in the German North Sea and Baltic Sea. The body condition of the Greenlandic animals was good, whereas nine of 23 German harbour porpoises were moderately to markedly emaciated. Both groups were infested with parasites. In the Greenlandic animals parasitism of the aural peribullar cavity with Stenurus minor, of the liver and pancreas with Orthosplanchnus mironovi, of the lungs with Halocercus species and of the subcutaneous and mammary tissue with Crassicauda species was generally associated with a mild inflammatory response. No diseases associated with bacteria were identified in any of the Greenlandic harbour porpoises. In the porpoises from the German North Sea and Baltic Sea, parasites were present in the aural peribullar cavity (S minor), liver (Campula oblonga), first and second gastric compartment (Anisakis simplex) and in the lungs (Pseudalius inflexus and Torynurus convolutus). Moderate to marked pulmonary parasitism and suppurative pneumonia, not observed in the Greenlandic porpoises, were present in 11 and 10, respectively, of the 23 German porpoises. The suppurative pneumonia was attributed to bacterial infection with beta-haemolytic streptococci and Escherichia coil var haemolytica. Four Greenlandic and 10 German porpoises had positive porpoise morbillivirus-specific antibody titres suggesting that the virus was circulating in both populations.

Animals↗

Retrospective study of 46 cases of feline haemobartonellosis in Israel and their relationships with FeLV and FIV infections.

Forty-six cats with clinical haemobartonellosis were studied; 75 per cent of the cats of known age were two-and-a-half years old or younger, 50 per cent were intact males and 19.5 per cent were castrated males. The predominant signs of the disease were tachypnoea, lethargy, depression, anorexia, infestation with fleas, pale mucous membranes, icterus, emaciation, dehydration, splenomegaly, anaemia, leucocytosis, increased activities of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, and azotaemia. Thirty-eight per cent of the cats that were tested for feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) antigen were positive, and 22 per cent of those tested for feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) antibodies were positive. The prevalence of both FeLV and FIV was much higher than in the general Israeli cat population. The cats infected with both Haemobartonella felis and FeLV had a significantly lower body temperature, were more anaemic and the mean cell volume of their erythrocytes was greater than in the cats with haemobartonellosis alone.

Anaplasmataceae Infections↗

Infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis.

Infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis is a common condition affecting young infants; despite its frequency, it has been recognized only for a little over a century, and its etiology remains unknown. Nevertheless, understanding of the condition and of effective treatment have undergone a remarkable evolution in the 20th century, reducing the mortality rate from over 50% to nearly 0%. The lesion is characterized by gastric outlet obstruction and multiple anatomic abnormalities of the pyloric antrum. The antropyloric muscle is abnormally thickened and innervated, and the intervening lumen is obstructed by crowded and redundant mucosa. Recognition of the obstructive role of the mucosa led to discovery of effective surgical treatment. Accurate clinical diagnosis in patients in whom a thickened antropyloric muscle is not readily palpable can be difficult, resulting in delayed diagnosis and can lead to emaciation and electrolyte imbalance, making the patient a suboptimal surgical candidate. Current imaging techniques, particularly sonography, are noninvasive and accurate for identification of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis. Successful imaging requires understanding of anatomic changes that occur in patients with this condition and plays an integral role in patient care. Accurate, rapid, noninvasive imaging techniques facilitate rapid referral of vomiting infants and prompt surgical treatment of more suitable surgical candidates.

Algorithms↗

Selective reduction of alpha 2-adrenergic responsiveness in hamster adipose tissue during prolonged starvation.

The influence of fasting on the dual adrenergic control of adipose tissue lipolysis was investigated in hamsters because in this species the adipocytes exhibit both beta-stimulatory and alpha 2-inhibitory adrenergic responses. In adipocytes from fed animals, the number of alpha 2-receptors (identified with [3H]clonidine and [3H]RX 821002) was greater than that of beta-receptors. As in humans, the alpha 2-adrenoceptor number was greater in adipocyte membranes from subcutaneous (inguinal and popliteal) than from internal (perirenal and epididymal) adipose tissues. Despite this difference in alpha 2-adrenoceptor number, the antilipolytic responses to the alpha 2-agonists clonidine and UK 14304 were similar in the two tissues. Food deprivation for a period of 1-6 days induced a net depletion of both adipose tissues. In 6-day starved animals the number of adipocyte alpha 2-adrenoceptors and the maximal antilipolytic effect of UK 14304 were less than 50% of those in fed controls. In contrast, the antilipolytic responses to phenylisopropyladenosine or prostaglandin E1 remained unchanged. Starvation induced a decrease in alpha 2-adrenoceptor number and an increase in beta-adrenergic sensitivity that were greater in adipocytes from subcutaneous than from internal fad pads. The data suggest that the adipocyte beta- and alpha 2-adrenoceptors are independently regulated during starvation. In the adipocyte, the alpha 2-antilipolytic responses and the alpha 2-adrenoceptor levels are dependent on the extent of the adipose mass; they are particularly reduced in emaciated hamsters.

Adenosine Deaminase↗