A 1 year old Caucasian male born with an omphalocoele, malrotation of the large bowel, and Ladd's bands developed an E. coli wound infection and subsequent meningitis-ventriculitis which responded to antibiotic therapy. Aqueductal stenosis and obstructive hydrocephalus initially was treated with a ventriculoperitoneal shunt. After a routine diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus immunization, the child d...

Background: A majority of people suffering from functional abdominal complaints treat themselves with OTC medication. Aim: To gain information on symptoms and their interpretation in patients self-treating abdominal cramping and pain with a spasmolytic (butylscopolamine). Method: 4,680 questionnaires were distributed by 306 pharmacists in Germany to patients suffering from abdominal complaints ...

Recent pre-clinical and clinical studies have revealed the C-reactive protein gene (CRP) is related to the degree of acute rise in plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Moreover, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the CRP gene could associate with increased risk of cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, obstructive pulmonary disease,...

Intestinal vasculitis is an infrequent entity in the absence of systemic vasculitis or chronic inflammatory bowel disease. The primary involvement of gut restricted to mesenteric venous territory is exceedingly rare. We report a pseudotumoural lesion of the cecum caused by localized phlebitis and venulitis associated with thrombosis, with a putative immune etiology, in a young adult presenting ...

BACKGROUND While tonic pupils have been attributed to various diseases, including syphilis, herpes zoster, orbital trauma, temporal arteritis, endometriosis, and paraneoplastic syndromes, obstructive hydrocephalus has not been implicated. CASE REPORT A 36-year-old woman visited a neurology department with a 7-day history of throbbing headache and blurred vision in both eyes. She had early dor...

Many patients undergoing coronary angiography because of chest pain syndromes, believed to be indicative of obstructive atherosclerosis of the epicardial coronary arteries, are found to have normal angiograms. In the past two decades, a number of studies have reported that abnormalities in the function and structure of the coronary microcirculation may occur in patients without obstructive athe...

Recent reports have suggested that flow volume curve abnormalities may be of interest in the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea syndromes by showing either extrathoracic airway obstruction (ratio of expiratory flow to inspiratory flow at 50 percent of forced vital capacity [FEF50/FIF50] exceeding 1) or upper airway fluttering (indicated by a sawtooth aspect on the mid-half of the inspiratory ...

DIAGNOSIS & TERMINOLOGY The diagnosis of “Chronic Idiopathic Enteropathy” (CIE), which includes “Inflammatory Bowel Disease” (IBD), is based on the presence of compatible clinical signs (chronic diarrhea, vomiting or weight loss) AND the exclusion of metabolic, infectious, neoplastic, and obstructive disorders of the gut (see Table 1). If biopsy samples also reveal mucosal morphologic abnormali...

OBJECTIVE Our objective was to review and compare, with meta-analytic methods, observational studies on the association of medically unexplained physical symptoms, anxiety, and depression with special emphasis on healthy and organically ill control groups and on different types of symptoms, measures, and illness behavior. METHODS A search of MEDLINE and PsycLIT/PsycINFO for abstracts from 198...