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Examines some cases of pityriasis rosea. Symptoms of pityriasis rosea; Causes of the disease; Diagnosis of the disease.

The article presents information on a case of a family in which two children suffered from Sandhoff's disease. The patients, both boys, were the first and third children of Scottish parents who are first cousins, the maternal grandfather and the paternal grandmother being brother and sister. The eldest child was well at birth, weighing 2.72 kg. He was first thought to be abnormal at the age of 6 months, when following an acute respiratory illness his mother noted that his limbs had become floppy and that he had lost the ability to roll over from supine to prone position.

The article discusses the study to determine whether phenylalanine can discriminate a group of heterozygotes for phenylketonuria. A phenylalanine tolerance test was eleven known heterozygotes to 14 patients after recovery from an attack of endogenous depression, and to 15 patients with a variety of neurological and psychiatric diagnoses, but without a personal or family history of endogenous depression. The test failed to discriminate between a group of patients with endogenous depression and a control group, thus providing evidence against the hypothesis that heterozygosity for phenylketonuria predisposes to endogenous depression.

A method of expressing platelet aggregation response after incubation relative to the response before incubation has been used in preference to using direct measurements, and some reasons are given for this choice. The effect of pre-incubating human platelets with reserpine has been compared with the effect of pre-incubation with 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT). Reserpine inhibited 5HT-induced aggregation more slowly than 5HT and on this basis their actions could be distinguished. It was found that the aggregation response of human platelets to 5HT without pre-incubation (R) is inversely proportional to the natural 5HT content of whole blood, and an explanation has been suggested. A decrease in the aggregation response of human platelets to 5HT without pre-incubation (R) with increasing age has been noted, and is commented upon with reference to the release of amines from blood platelets. Platelets in plasma obtained from control subjects and incubated with methysergide and from migrainous patients taking methysergide both have reduced aggregation responses to 5HT. Platelets incubated with clonidine (St155) do not have reduced aggregation responses. A potentiating effect was noted after 20 minutes' incubation, but platelets from migraine patients taking St155 behaved normally. Tyramine affected the response of platelets to 5HT, giving results similar to those reported for reserpine. The differences between the aggregation responses to 5HT of platelets from migraine patients and normal control subjects are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The lipid patterns of plasma, red blood cells, and leucocytes from normal controls and from patients with multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease have been studied by thin-layer chromatography. The fatty acid composition of cholesterol esters and lecithin in plasma from normal subjects and from patients with multiple sclerosis are reported. The fatty acid composition of lecithin of cerebral white matter from normal control subjects, from multiple sclerosis, and from motor neurone disease as well as of cholesterol esters in multiple sclerosis are recorded and compared. No significant abnormalities were found in the blood lipid profile in multiple sclerosis, but in motor neurone disease red cell sphingomyelin was slightly reduced and white cell lecithin slightly increased. The fatty acids of plasma cholesterol esters showed a slight decrease in palmitic and stearic acid in multiple sclerosis. The fatty acids in lecithin in multiple sclerosis, both in the apparently normal white matter and in the plaques, showed a slightly increased degree of saturation, while the loss of unsaturated acids was in oleic acids. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The soluble cerebral proteins of cortex and white matter from normal brains of adults and infants and of oedematous brain tissue have been subjected to starch electrophoresis. The protein patterns with their nitrogen, lactic dehydrogenase, and glutamic oxalacetic transaminase contents were estimated. The normal patterns of these substances have been compared with the findings of workers using other methods of electrophoresis. Oedematous brains have been shown to possess an albumin band with an increase in lactic dehydrogenase in some globulin bands. These findings are discussed in relation to the mode and site of production of oedema. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]