Appropriate response to pneumococcal vaccine in celiac sprue.

Hyposplenism as a complication of celiac sprue confers an increased risk of pneumococcal sepsis, but such patients do not routinely receive pneumococcal vaccine despite reports of overwhelming pneumococcal sepsis. Because antibody response in these patients has not been previously assessed, we measured pre- and postvaccination levels in 10 patients with documented sprue. All demonstrated appropriate acute antibody responses to a polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine.

Clostridium cadaveris: an unusual cause of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis.

Bacterial peritonitis has been known to complicate severe liver disease. Aerobic organisms are responsible for the vast majority of cases, whereas anaerobic bacteria are responsible for less than 5% of all cases reported in the literature. We now report a case of Clostridium cadaveris anaerobic bacterial peritonitis in a 58-yr-old female, an organism that to our knowledge has not been previously implicated as an infectious agent in this entity.

Implications of flow cytometry in malignant conditions of the stomach.

Unlabelled: Aneuploidy, abnormal nuclear DNA content, has been demonstrated in most malignant processes, including gastric malignancies. Utilizing flow cytometry on endoscopic biopsies, we have attempted to characterize the prevalence of aneuploidy and to investigate the prognostic implications of gastric biopsy DNA content with regard to survival. DNA aneuploidy was detected in 71% of specimens revealing malignancy by histologic evaluation.