Celiac axis compression: experience with 20 patients and a critical appraisal of the syndrome.

Twenty patients with celiac axis compression were treated surgically during a 5-year period. Fifteen remain asymptomatic, two are partially improved, two are unimproved, and one has been lost to follow-up. The main presenting symptom was upper abdominal pain--constant in some, intermittent in most--and the main diagnostic clue was a loud, localized systolic bruit in the midepigastrium.

Autoimmune factors in African cirrhosis. Correlation with hepatitis B surface antigen and antibody.

Sera were tested for autoantibodies in 98 patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis in Uganda and results correlated with serological tests for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBs Ag) and antibody to HBs Ag (HBs Ab). Smooth muscle antibodies (SMA) were detected in 23 (24%) of the patients but there was no difference in the incidence of SMA between HBs Ag-positive and negative cases. Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) were detected in five cases; mitochondrial, gastric and thyroid antibodies were not found in any patient.

Carnosinase activity of human gastrointestinal mucosa.

Carnosinase, the dipeptidase which hydrolyses carnosine and other histidine-containing dipeptides, was assayed in mucosal tissues of the human and of the rat gut. Kinetic properties of the intestinal enzyme were found to be similar to carnosinase of other animal tissues. Little or no activity was detected in human gastric or colonic mucosa, and the levels were lower in duodenal than jejunal mucosa.

The association of syphilis with cirrhosis: the role of alcohol and serum hepatitis.

The role of syphilis and alcohol was investigated in a prospective study of patients with cirrhosis of liver in Uganda, and results were correlated with the histological type of cirrhosis, and serological tests for hepatitis B antigen (HB Ag). Eighteen out of eighty (22·5%) patients with histologically-proven cirrhosis had positive serology for syphilis (VDRL and TPI). A high incidence of alcoholism (80%) and syphilis (60%) was found in patients with micronodular cirrhosis who were all negative for HB Ag.

Hypothermia in the tropics. A review of 24 cases.

The clinical features in a series of 24 patients with hypothermia treated at Mulago Hospital, Kampala, are described. Hypothermia developed in all when the environmental temperature did not fall below 16 degrees. There was a preponderance of males; 14 of the 24 cases were over 50 years old.