Changes in jejunal mucosa after long-term feeding of germfree rats with gluten.

Background: Coeliac disease (CD) or gluten-sensitive enteropathy is a chronic gastrointestinal disease of children and adults. An experimental model using inbred germfree rats has been developed to study the effects of intragastric gliadin application on intestinal mucosa.

Methods: AVN strain Wistar rats (inbred F 87)-germfree were used.

[Histochemical and immunohistochemical study of jejunal mucosa cells in children with celiac sprue].

In the jejunal mucosae of 45 children with coeliac sprue (24 cases in the florid stage and 21 cases in remission) and 19 children without signs of affection of the small intestine a quantitative investigation was made of cells in the lamina propria which were visualized selectively by histochemical and immunohistochemical methods-plasmocytes with IgA, plasmocytes with IgM, plasmocytes with IgG, cells containing IgE, mast cells, eosinophil and neutrophil leucocytes. The objective was to find which of the above cells will best reveal by a change of their number the pathological process in the lamina propria of children with coeliac sprue and which has the greatest informative value on the present state of the lamina propria. It was found that plasmocytes with IgG and cells containing IgE are good markers of the activity of coeliac sprue in the lamina propria.

[New recommendations for nutritional requirements for the Czechoslovak population].

The authors present new recommended energy and nutrient allowances for the population of CSFR. The allowances are defined for 29 physiological groups, incl. 11 groups of children and adolescents and 18 groups of adults (productive age and more advanced age groups).

Treatment of a gastric bezoar by extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy.

A bezoar of the stomach was diagnosed by X-ray and endoscopy in an 8-year-old boy who presented with intermittent dull epigastric pain. Attempts at endoscopic extraction failed because of the size and hardness of the bezoar. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy was therefore applied using ultrasound to locate the bezoar.