A 77-year-old man showed bilateral abducens palsies and multiple cranial nerve enhancement on magnetic resonance images (MRI) and aseptic meningitis. He had xerophthalmia and xerostomia. Serum anti-SS-A and anti-SS-B antibodies were present. He had Sjögren's syndrome (SjS) and corticosteroid therapy ameliorated the symptoms. The cranial nerve enhancement and the cerebrospinal fluid findings wer...

CASE REPORT We describe ocular findings due to a vitamin A deficiency in a 50-year-old man. The patient had undergone intestinal bypass surgery two years before. After therapy with oral vitamin A the symptoms improved. DISCUSSION The incidence of morbid obesity is increasing throughout much of the developed world, with intestinal bypass surgery the treatment of choice for most people with the...

Kala-azar or visceral leishmaniasis is usually associated with progressive emaciation in spite of the fact that the patients generally have a good, at times voracious, appetite and their diet is not often greatly restricted. Apart from emaciation, signs of avitaminosis, viz, xerophthalmia, Bitot's spots, glossitis, angular stomatitis, dryness of the skin, etc., have often been noticed by one of...

Xerophthalmia developed in the eyes of rabbits maintained on a vitamin A-deficient diet for 4 to 6 months. The earliest clinical change, a lusterless graying of the central corneal epithelium, was noted after 16 to 18 weeks on the diet. Multiple small punctate epithelial erosions appeared in the interpalpebral fissure zone within 7 to 10 days after the lusterless graying became evident. The ero...

OBJECTIVES A representative sample of 1510 preschool children living in the Bandiagra circle (Mopti Region, Mali) was examined between March and April 1997 to determine the level of vitamin A deficiency. METHODS Using a randomized two level cluster sampling, 20 clusters of 75 children aged six months to six years were selected for evaluating xerophthalmia (XN night blindness and/or X1B Bitot ...

KERATOCONUS is comparatively speaking a rare disease, but as a clinical entity it has been known for many years. Its aetiology is, however, still obscure, and its treatment is unfortunately one of the failures of ophthalmology. It has been thought that it might be a deficiency disease, and recent attempts to cure the condition by administration of vitamin D and calcium have been made. (Knapp, 1...

OBJECTIVE Several antibodies have proven to be useful in autoimmune diseases, as markers for diagnosis, prognosis or clinical manifestations. Our objective was to evaluate the diagnosis and manifestations associated for antibodies anti-Ro52, anti-Ro60 and anti-La at a referral hospital in Spain. METHODS We retrospectively analyzed the antigenic specificities of the consecutive samples submitt...