- Email: [email protected]
RADIATION MYOPATHY
1231 cured. The drug was well tolerated by all patients. healing was rapid, especially in the patients (nos. 3 and 4) dendritic ulcers combined with iridocyclitis.
The with
So far the number of cases treated is too small for definite conclusions. The patients with herpes simplex chosen for this preliminary study all had considerable stromal involvement, for which other available therapy, including topical idoxuridine,
practically ineffective. (Idoxuridine
is too toxic for systemic We that believe azauridine deserves wider trials as a use.36) in in useful tool affections which leucoma often results. possible Longer-term studies are necessary to determine whether recurrences can be prevented. The value of topically applied azauridine for superficial epithelial affections is now under investigation. is
2nd Eye Clinic, Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Institute of Pharmacology, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, and Institute of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pædiatrics, Charles University, Prague.
V. MYSKA
J. ELIS J. PLEVOVÁ H. RA&Sbreve;KOVÁ.
thus may lead to earlier evaluation of radiation damage in muscle tissue. Further investigations are going on to determine more precisely at which radiation-dose level the electrophysiological disturbances may be considered as pathological. Centre for Cancer Diseases and
Laboratory for Electromyography, University Clinics, Louvain, Belgium.
M. H. FAES N. ROSSELLE.
EFFECT OF ANTILYMPHOCYTIC ANTIBODY
SIR,-We very much regret that in our paper last week (p. 1126) we omitted to acknowledge our indebtedness to Mr. John G. Watt, N.R.V.C.S., of the department of veterinary surgery of this University, who helped greatly in the preparation of horse-anti-rat serum and in particular undertook the immunisation of the horse. N. F. ANDERSON K. JAMES of Department Surgical Science, M. F. A. WOODRUFF. University of Edinburgh,
ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES AND DEPRESSION
Obituary
SIR,-Dr. Thakurdas, who wrote last week (p. 1164), is not alone in finding depression associated with oral contraceptives. I would refer him
to a
paper
by
Kane and his associates
published recently.39 Some of my colleagues
and I have been concerned for some time over the incidence of depression, often of serious depth, in women taking oral contraceptives. Casual observation seems to indicate that depression is more common with the " combination " type of oral contraceptive than with the " sequential " type. I am at present engaged in a research project designed to explore the incidence of psychiatric side-effects from oral contraceptives, with women using mechanical devices as controls. It is hoped that the results of this study will be published in due course. The Towers Hospital, C. M. MCGREGOR. Leicester.
RADIATION MYOPATHY SIR,-The histological appearance of striated muscle after irradiation closely resembles that of muscle dystrophy or myopathy. In most cases the affected individual muscle cells which undergo hyaline degeneration are distributed haphazardly among the normal ones, and patches of monocytic infiltration are seen. We wondered whether these histological similarities would be reflected by similar electrophysiological responses. We irradiated twenty-eight guineapigs on the right hind-limb with cobalt-60 from a’Barazetti Major’ machine. The animals were divided into six groups receiving respectively 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, and 6400r. Six more animals were kept as controls. Except for those receiving the highest dose, most animals survived more than 5 months. Each animal was examined electromyographically at regular intervals. From the first weeks on E.M.G. disturbances were noticed after a delay which was longer for the lower doses. The main anomalies were polyphasic potentials on voluntary contraction, followed later by fibrillation due to spontaneous activity at rest, and abnormal fibrillar activities after needle insertion-anomalies similar to those described by Lambert 4’ in myopathies. Disturbances caused by radiation in muscle thus resemble those found in myopathy from the electrophysiological aspect also, thus justifying the use of the term " radiation myopathy." These alterations seem to precede the clinical alterations and 38.
Breeden, C. J., Hall, T. C., Tyler,
H. R. Ann. intern. Med.
1966, 65,
1050.
39. Kane, F. J., Jr, Daly, R. J., Ewing, J. A., Keeler, M. H. Br. J.
Psychiat.
1967, 113, 265. 40. Lambert, E., Kane, Ch., Rowland, L. P., Newman, M. K., Meyer, J. S. Archs phys. Med. Rehabil. 1965, 46B, 146.
HARRY NORMAN GREEN
Cantab., M.D., M.Sc. Sheff. Prof. H. N. Green, professor of experimental pathology and director of cancer research in the University of Leeds, died on May 16 at the age of 63. M.A.
Sheffield in 1924. In 1925 he obtained with first-class honours, and in the following year the degree of M.SC. He became M.D. in 1927. From 1926 to 1933 he worked in Sheffield as clinical assistant to Sir Edward Mellanby at the Royal Infirmary and as research assistant in the university department of pharmacology. During this period he published papers on diet and infection, diet and pregnancy, and the biochemistry of vitamins A and D. In 1933 he moved to Cambridge as lecturer in pathology; and, while working on bactericidal factors in the blood, he became interested in chemotherapy, contributing several papers on the He qualified the degree of
M.B. at B.sc.
mode of action of sulphonamides and related compounds. In 1935 he returned to Sheffield as professor of pathology, also directing cancer research in the university. In the 1939-45 war he headed a Medical Research Council team which investigated the nature and mechanisms of shock. The rapid recovery of patients following amputation of lower limbs with extensive muscle damage led him to renew the search for metabolic factors in muscle which might be responsible for some part of the " shock " syndrome. Experimentally, he and Mrs. M. Bielschowsky fractionated muscle extracts and found that the main active substance was adenosine triphophate. To determine how far the experimental findings applied to man, the War Office and the M.R.C. arranged the formation of " British Traumatic Shock Team No. 2 ", which, under the command of Green (who served as lieut.-colonel) made observations on battle casualties in forward areas in North-West Europe from March, 1945, until the war ended. Much of this work was brought together in Biological Actions of the Adenine Nucleotides, written in collaboration with Dr. H. B. Stoner and published in 1950. When he took up his appointments at Leeds in 1953, he retained the directorship of cancer research at Sheffield.
H. M. A. writes: " Those who knew Harry Green in his days at Sheffield retain a vivid memory of his voracious scientific reading and his amazing grasp of the frontier material of many disciplines. This bore fruit soon after he came to Leeds when, in 1954, his hypothesis ’An immunological basis of carcinogenesis ’ appeared in the British Medical Journal. In this he suggested that cancer cells were malignant because they had lost the " tissue specific antigens " through which immunological-like
The with
So far the number of cases treated is too small for definite conclusions. The patients with herpes simplex chosen for this preliminary study all had considerable stromal involvement, for which other available therapy, including topical idoxuridine,
practically ineffective. (Idoxuridine
is too toxic for systemic We that believe azauridine deserves wider trials as a use.36) in in useful tool affections which leucoma often results. possible Longer-term studies are necessary to determine whether recurrences can be prevented. The value of topically applied azauridine for superficial epithelial affections is now under investigation. is
2nd Eye Clinic, Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Institute of Pharmacology, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, and Institute of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pædiatrics, Charles University, Prague.
V. MYSKA
J. ELIS J. PLEVOVÁ H. RA&Sbreve;KOVÁ.
thus may lead to earlier evaluation of radiation damage in muscle tissue. Further investigations are going on to determine more precisely at which radiation-dose level the electrophysiological disturbances may be considered as pathological. Centre for Cancer Diseases and
Laboratory for Electromyography, University Clinics, Louvain, Belgium.
M. H. FAES N. ROSSELLE.
EFFECT OF ANTILYMPHOCYTIC ANTIBODY
SIR,-We very much regret that in our paper last week (p. 1126) we omitted to acknowledge our indebtedness to Mr. John G. Watt, N.R.V.C.S., of the department of veterinary surgery of this University, who helped greatly in the preparation of horse-anti-rat serum and in particular undertook the immunisation of the horse. N. F. ANDERSON K. JAMES of Department Surgical Science, M. F. A. WOODRUFF. University of Edinburgh,
ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES AND DEPRESSION
Obituary
SIR,-Dr. Thakurdas, who wrote last week (p. 1164), is not alone in finding depression associated with oral contraceptives. I would refer him
to a
paper
by
Kane and his associates
published recently.39 Some of my colleagues
and I have been concerned for some time over the incidence of depression, often of serious depth, in women taking oral contraceptives. Casual observation seems to indicate that depression is more common with the " combination " type of oral contraceptive than with the " sequential " type. I am at present engaged in a research project designed to explore the incidence of psychiatric side-effects from oral contraceptives, with women using mechanical devices as controls. It is hoped that the results of this study will be published in due course. The Towers Hospital, C. M. MCGREGOR. Leicester.
RADIATION MYOPATHY SIR,-The histological appearance of striated muscle after irradiation closely resembles that of muscle dystrophy or myopathy. In most cases the affected individual muscle cells which undergo hyaline degeneration are distributed haphazardly among the normal ones, and patches of monocytic infiltration are seen. We wondered whether these histological similarities would be reflected by similar electrophysiological responses. We irradiated twenty-eight guineapigs on the right hind-limb with cobalt-60 from a’Barazetti Major’ machine. The animals were divided into six groups receiving respectively 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, and 6400r. Six more animals were kept as controls. Except for those receiving the highest dose, most animals survived more than 5 months. Each animal was examined electromyographically at regular intervals. From the first weeks on E.M.G. disturbances were noticed after a delay which was longer for the lower doses. The main anomalies were polyphasic potentials on voluntary contraction, followed later by fibrillation due to spontaneous activity at rest, and abnormal fibrillar activities after needle insertion-anomalies similar to those described by Lambert 4’ in myopathies. Disturbances caused by radiation in muscle thus resemble those found in myopathy from the electrophysiological aspect also, thus justifying the use of the term " radiation myopathy." These alterations seem to precede the clinical alterations and 38.
Breeden, C. J., Hall, T. C., Tyler,
H. R. Ann. intern. Med.
1966, 65,
1050.
39. Kane, F. J., Jr, Daly, R. J., Ewing, J. A., Keeler, M. H. Br. J.
Psychiat.
1967, 113, 265. 40. Lambert, E., Kane, Ch., Rowland, L. P., Newman, M. K., Meyer, J. S. Archs phys. Med. Rehabil. 1965, 46B, 146.
HARRY NORMAN GREEN
Cantab., M.D., M.Sc. Sheff. Prof. H. N. Green, professor of experimental pathology and director of cancer research in the University of Leeds, died on May 16 at the age of 63. M.A.
Sheffield in 1924. In 1925 he obtained with first-class honours, and in the following year the degree of M.SC. He became M.D. in 1927. From 1926 to 1933 he worked in Sheffield as clinical assistant to Sir Edward Mellanby at the Royal Infirmary and as research assistant in the university department of pharmacology. During this period he published papers on diet and infection, diet and pregnancy, and the biochemistry of vitamins A and D. In 1933 he moved to Cambridge as lecturer in pathology; and, while working on bactericidal factors in the blood, he became interested in chemotherapy, contributing several papers on the He qualified the degree of
M.B. at B.sc.
mode of action of sulphonamides and related compounds. In 1935 he returned to Sheffield as professor of pathology, also directing cancer research in the university. In the 1939-45 war he headed a Medical Research Council team which investigated the nature and mechanisms of shock. The rapid recovery of patients following amputation of lower limbs with extensive muscle damage led him to renew the search for metabolic factors in muscle which might be responsible for some part of the " shock " syndrome. Experimentally, he and Mrs. M. Bielschowsky fractionated muscle extracts and found that the main active substance was adenosine triphophate. To determine how far the experimental findings applied to man, the War Office and the M.R.C. arranged the formation of " British Traumatic Shock Team No. 2 ", which, under the command of Green (who served as lieut.-colonel) made observations on battle casualties in forward areas in North-West Europe from March, 1945, until the war ended. Much of this work was brought together in Biological Actions of the Adenine Nucleotides, written in collaboration with Dr. H. B. Stoner and published in 1950. When he took up his appointments at Leeds in 1953, he retained the directorship of cancer research at Sheffield.
H. M. A. writes: " Those who knew Harry Green in his days at Sheffield retain a vivid memory of his voracious scientific reading and his amazing grasp of the frontier material of many disciplines. This bore fruit soon after he came to Leeds when, in 1954, his hypothesis ’An immunological basis of carcinogenesis ’ appeared in the British Medical Journal. In this he suggested that cancer cells were malignant because they had lost the " tissue specific antigens " through which immunological-like