Paediatric Anaesthesia and Critical Care in the District Hospital: a Practical Guide

I do not think that the title of this book of nearly 300 closelyprinted pages really does it justice, as it might not attractthose anaesthetists, of all grades, for whom it could be anextremely useful addition to the personal library. The bookis written     

Does the ANSI Z80.3 nonprescription sunglass and fashion eyewear standard go far enough?

The recent public concern regarding sunglass protection from UV energy has sparked a significant debate among those in the research community and industry. This debate grows out of concern for the known effects of UV energy in producing or contributing to eye effects such as keratitis, cataract formation, and retinal damage. The ANSI Z80.3 Standard addresses itself to this issue by setting levels of UV energy that are permitted to be transmitted in various labeling categories for over-the-counter sunlenses. One important issue is that the ANSI Standard does not provide for an absolute block of UV energy in any category of these lenses. Because the technology to provide this sort of total UV block is currently available, it is argued that there should be at least one category of lens that is fully protective in the UV range.     

Staphylococcus lugdunensis.

A fatal case of penicillin resistant Staphylococcus lugdunensis endocarditis on a native valve damaged by rheumatic fever is described. A retrospective examination of 978 tube coagulase negative staphylococcal blood culture isolates was also performed to determine how often this species is isolated. None of the 978 isolates was identified as S lugdunensis. It is concluded that ornithine decarboxylase production is the only reliable method of identifying this species.     

Association of atrophy of the medial temporal lobe with reduced blood flow in the posterior parietotemporal cortex in patients with a clinical and pathological diagnosis of Alzheimer''s disease.

A combination of medial temporal lobe atrophy, shown by computed tomography, and reduced blood flow in the parietotemporal cortex, shown by single photon emission tomography, was found in 86% (44/51) of patients with a clinical diagnosis of senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT). The same combination of changes was found in four out of 10 patients with other clinical types of dementia and in two out of 18 with no evidence of cognitive deficit. Of the 12 patients who died, 10 fulfilled histopathological criteria for Alzheimer's disease, nine of them having a clinical diagnosis of SDAT, and one a clinical diagnosis of multi-infarct dementia. All 10 patients with histopathologically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease had shown a combination of hippocampal atrophy and reduced parietotemporal blood flow in life. In 10 patients (nine with SDAT) out of 12 in whom the hippocampal atrophy was more noticeable on one side of the brain than on the other the parietotemporal perfusion deficit was also asymmetrical, being greater on the side showing more hippocampal atrophy. These results suggest that the combination of atrophy of the hippocampal formation and reduced blood flow in the parietotemporal region is a feature of dementia of the Alzheimer type and that the functional change in the parietotemporal region might be related to the loss of the projection neurons in the parahippocampal gyrus that innervate this region of the neocortex.     

Persistent and transient clones of Salmonella typhimurium of phage type 141 recognized by biotyping

Among the 81 cultures of Salmonella typhimurium of phage type 141 examined, 72 had been isolated from Sheffield incidents in 1984-5 and 9 were Scottish isolates from 1986-7. All of these cultures from diverse sources belonged to primary biotype 31; 79 were of full biotype 31beg and 2 anaerogenic cultures were of full biotype 31begj. This is the first known occasion on which an epidemic strain of S. typhimurium of phage type/biotype 141/31beg has been implicated in outbreaks of human or animal infection in the UK. Because previous epidemic strains of S. typhimurium of phage type 141 in the UK belonged to biotypes 1f and 9f which are phylogenetically unrelated to biotype 31beg, the likely origin of this most recent epidemic S. typhimurium strain of phage type/biotype 141/31beg is discussed.