Arterial oxygen saturation and posture in acute stroke.

Patients with acute stroke are at risk of hypoxaemia and the degree of oxygen desaturation may depend on posture. Using a fingertip pulse oximeter, we studied the effects of different nursing positions on arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) in ten elderly patients within 48 hours of a hemiplegic stroke and 10 age-matched controls admitted to hospital with other acute illnesses. Mean SaO2 was consistently higher in the controls than the stroke patients in all recumbent positions, but when patients were propped up the difference between the groups was statistically insignificant.

Atypical radiological presentations of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Unfamiliar manifestation of pulmonary tuberculosis found in Central and West Africa are presented. These include egg shell calcification in parenchyma and glands, calcification of the diaphragmatic pleura resembling asbestosis, honeycombing and B Kerley's lines with or without complicating bronchiectasis. There should be an index of suspicion of pulmonary tuberculosis even when other typical tuberculous lesions are not associated with these lesions not normally attributed to the disease.

Incidence of peptic ulcer in the Zambian African - a radiological study.

Five hundred and sixty-eight (568) consecutive barium meal examinations have been studied. 152 showed peptic ulcer. There were 146 duodenal and six gastric ulcers.

Tuberculosis of the liver presenting as peripheral vascular disease.

Peripheral vascular disease in African males may be associated with a tuberculous infection elsewhere in the body. The case history is described of a patient who presented with gangrenous lesions of both feet and was found to have tuberculosis of the liver. The lesions on the feet healed within 2 months of starting anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy.