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VIRUSES AND GASTROENTERITIS IN INFANTS
1297
palate produced by food deprivation is due to a specific nutrient deficiency or a combination of deficiencies. Also, we do not know whether nutritional deprivation raises blood-levels of tranquillisers or slows excretion. Thus, forced feeding might reduce cleft palate by lowering the effective dose of the drugs. These possibilities can be tested by determining the blood-levels of the drugs in the Determination of the important various experiments. nutritional factors would require extensive investigation.
Regardless of the outcome of such experiments, we must again emphasise that the application of findings fromteratogenic studies in the mouse to the human situation is fraught with difficulties. 4-6 R. L. B. is supported by N.I.H. grant HD 630. Pathology and Toxicology Department, Smith, Kline & French Laboratories, KALMAN T. SZABO. Philadelphia. Stein Research Center, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
ROBERT L. BRENT.
VIRUSES AND GASTROENTERITIS IN INFANTS
SIR,-An investigation of acute non-bacterial gastroenteritis, which will be reported more fully elsewhere, included the examination by electron microscopy of the stools from 14 babies with mild diarrhoea and vomiting in one maternity unit. Specimens from 8 of the babies contained particles 29-30 nm. in diameter, often present in
DUOVIRUS IN PSEUDOCHOLERA INFANTUM
SIR,—" Pseudocholera infantum ", first described by Prof. Sukehiko Ito in 1910, is an acute diarrhoeal disorder of infancy, usually associated with vomiting, in which the stools, lacking bile pigment, are white. Following the recognition of a reovirus-like particle (duovirus) as a common cause of acute infantile enteritis in various parts of the world we decided to study two small groups of Japanese infants with acute diarrhoeal disease. Faecal specimens were collected from 5 infants with pseudocholera infantum and from 5 infants with pigmented diarrhoeal stools. All infants were admitted to hospital with symptoms of acute enteritis between Dec. 23, 1974, and Feb. 21, 1975, and were between 6 and 12 months old. The specimens were processed and examined by electron microscope as previously described.22 Duovirus particles were found in all 5 infants with pseudocholera infantum and in 4 of the 5 infants with pigmented stools. These results show that duovirus infection is an important cause of acute infantile diarrhoea in Japan but do not explain the differences in stool colour which Japanese physicians have emphasised in their description of infantile diarrhoea.3 Department of Pædiatrics, School of Medicine, Kurume University,
Japan. Department of Gastroenterology, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia, Department of Microbiology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
F. YAMASHITA S. SHIBUYA. R. R. W. TOWNLEY G. P. DAVIDSON R. F. BISHOP. I. H. HOLMES B. J. RUCK.
UNBLOCKING OF T LYMPHOCYTES
Electron micrograph of faecal extract showing particles 29-3(] nm. in diameter, x 75,000.
large numbers and sometimes seen in clumps (see accompanying figure). These particles differ in size and morphology from the previously described rotavirus and Norwalk agent. They were not seen in further specimens, collected eight weeks later, from a proportion of the patients nor ÙJ the fseces of 4 symptomless babies in the same unit. The evidence suggests that the particles represent a virus whict was xtiologically associated with this outbreak of nonbacterial
gastroenteritis.
Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5HT.
H. APPLETON P. G. HIGGINS.
4. Brent, R. L. Excerpta Med. int. Congr. Ser. 1969, 5. Brent, R. L. Teratology, 1971, 4, 255. 6. Brent, R. L. J. clin. Pharmac. 1972, 12, 61.
204, 187.
SIR,-Doyle and his colleaguesreported on the recovery of normal lymphocyte reactivity in cancer patients after washing these cells in an N.C.I./I.B.M. blood-cell separator and reinjecting them into the same subjects. We have some evidence pointing to a similar recovery in an in-vitro system and confirming that serum factors may be operating. We performed the spontaneous-rosette test (rosette E), according to the technique of Bach et aI.,5 on peripheral lymphocytes from cancer patients and 16 healthy volunteers. The following values (mean:!:standard deviation) were obtained: 48-5:12-65% for cancer patients; 54-3±15-97% for normal controls. Taking as a point of reference the values obtained with the standard technique, the differences in the percentage of rosette-forming lymphocytes were recorded after some experimental manipulations: (a) after 6 additional washings, (b) after incubation of the washed lymphocytes with autologous serum (1 hour at 37 °C), and (c) after incubation of the washed lymphocytes with homologous serum. In the last test, lymphocytes from cancer patients were incubated with normal serum, and lymphocytes from normal controls were incubated with neoplastic serum. Such experimental manipulations
did not entail any obvious variation in the percentage of rosette-forming lymphocytes in control subjects. But a definite increase in the percentage of rosette-forming lymphocytes was 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Lancet, 1975, i, 257. Bishop, R. F., Davidson, G. P., Holmes, I. H., Ruck, B. J. ibid. 1974, i, 149. Yamashita, F. Fukuoka Acta med. 1959, 50, 1231. Doyle, J. S., Bell, J., Deasy, P., Thornes, R. D. Lancet, 1974, ii, 959. Bach, J. F. Transplant. Rev. 1973, 16, 196.
palate produced by food deprivation is due to a specific nutrient deficiency or a combination of deficiencies. Also, we do not know whether nutritional deprivation raises blood-levels of tranquillisers or slows excretion. Thus, forced feeding might reduce cleft palate by lowering the effective dose of the drugs. These possibilities can be tested by determining the blood-levels of the drugs in the Determination of the important various experiments. nutritional factors would require extensive investigation.
Regardless of the outcome of such experiments, we must again emphasise that the application of findings fromteratogenic studies in the mouse to the human situation is fraught with difficulties. 4-6 R. L. B. is supported by N.I.H. grant HD 630. Pathology and Toxicology Department, Smith, Kline & French Laboratories, KALMAN T. SZABO. Philadelphia. Stein Research Center, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
ROBERT L. BRENT.
VIRUSES AND GASTROENTERITIS IN INFANTS
SIR,-An investigation of acute non-bacterial gastroenteritis, which will be reported more fully elsewhere, included the examination by electron microscopy of the stools from 14 babies with mild diarrhoea and vomiting in one maternity unit. Specimens from 8 of the babies contained particles 29-30 nm. in diameter, often present in
DUOVIRUS IN PSEUDOCHOLERA INFANTUM
SIR,—" Pseudocholera infantum ", first described by Prof. Sukehiko Ito in 1910, is an acute diarrhoeal disorder of infancy, usually associated with vomiting, in which the stools, lacking bile pigment, are white. Following the recognition of a reovirus-like particle (duovirus) as a common cause of acute infantile enteritis in various parts of the world we decided to study two small groups of Japanese infants with acute diarrhoeal disease. Faecal specimens were collected from 5 infants with pseudocholera infantum and from 5 infants with pigmented diarrhoeal stools. All infants were admitted to hospital with symptoms of acute enteritis between Dec. 23, 1974, and Feb. 21, 1975, and were between 6 and 12 months old. The specimens were processed and examined by electron microscope as previously described.22 Duovirus particles were found in all 5 infants with pseudocholera infantum and in 4 of the 5 infants with pigmented stools. These results show that duovirus infection is an important cause of acute infantile diarrhoea in Japan but do not explain the differences in stool colour which Japanese physicians have emphasised in their description of infantile diarrhoea.3 Department of Pædiatrics, School of Medicine, Kurume University,
Japan. Department of Gastroenterology, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia, Department of Microbiology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
F. YAMASHITA S. SHIBUYA. R. R. W. TOWNLEY G. P. DAVIDSON R. F. BISHOP. I. H. HOLMES B. J. RUCK.
UNBLOCKING OF T LYMPHOCYTES
Electron micrograph of faecal extract showing particles 29-3(] nm. in diameter, x 75,000.
large numbers and sometimes seen in clumps (see accompanying figure). These particles differ in size and morphology from the previously described rotavirus and Norwalk agent. They were not seen in further specimens, collected eight weeks later, from a proportion of the patients nor ÙJ the fseces of 4 symptomless babies in the same unit. The evidence suggests that the particles represent a virus whict was xtiologically associated with this outbreak of nonbacterial
gastroenteritis.
Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5HT.
H. APPLETON P. G. HIGGINS.
4. Brent, R. L. Excerpta Med. int. Congr. Ser. 1969, 5. Brent, R. L. Teratology, 1971, 4, 255. 6. Brent, R. L. J. clin. Pharmac. 1972, 12, 61.
204, 187.
SIR,-Doyle and his colleaguesreported on the recovery of normal lymphocyte reactivity in cancer patients after washing these cells in an N.C.I./I.B.M. blood-cell separator and reinjecting them into the same subjects. We have some evidence pointing to a similar recovery in an in-vitro system and confirming that serum factors may be operating. We performed the spontaneous-rosette test (rosette E), according to the technique of Bach et aI.,5 on peripheral lymphocytes from cancer patients and 16 healthy volunteers. The following values (mean:!:standard deviation) were obtained: 48-5:12-65% for cancer patients; 54-3±15-97% for normal controls. Taking as a point of reference the values obtained with the standard technique, the differences in the percentage of rosette-forming lymphocytes were recorded after some experimental manipulations: (a) after 6 additional washings, (b) after incubation of the washed lymphocytes with autologous serum (1 hour at 37 °C), and (c) after incubation of the washed lymphocytes with homologous serum. In the last test, lymphocytes from cancer patients were incubated with normal serum, and lymphocytes from normal controls were incubated with neoplastic serum. Such experimental manipulations
did not entail any obvious variation in the percentage of rosette-forming lymphocytes in control subjects. But a definite increase in the percentage of rosette-forming lymphocytes was 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Lancet, 1975, i, 257. Bishop, R. F., Davidson, G. P., Holmes, I. H., Ruck, B. J. ibid. 1974, i, 149. Yamashita, F. Fukuoka Acta med. 1959, 50, 1231. Doyle, J. S., Bell, J., Deasy, P., Thornes, R. D. Lancet, 1974, ii, 959. Bach, J. F. Transplant. Rev. 1973, 16, 196.