NZW mice

154

THE COLLEGE OF PATHOLOGISTS O F AUSTRALIA

The benign tumours included 5 examples of adenoma, 4 of leiomyoma, 2 of lipoma, 2 of lymphangioma and 1 of haemangioma. There were 31 primary malignant tumours, including 13 examples of argentaffin carcinoma, 11 of adenocarcinoma, 5 of lymphoma, 1 of leiomyosarcoma and 1 of squamous carcinoma. Ten instances of metastatic disease were encountered, seven of which were from melanomata and the other three from lymphomata. The prognosis in the series appeared to be unaffected by the mode of presentation or surgical treatment. STUDIES OF THE SANFILIPPO VARIETY OF MUCOPOLYSACCHARIDOSIS

CAMPBELL, P. E., TAFT,L. I., DANKS,D. M. & KENNEDY, J. C. Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria Atypical varieties of ‘Hurler’s syndrome’ may be less obvious clinically than the classical form, despite the presence of abnormal mucopolysaccharides (e.g. heparatin sulphate) in their urine. One of these, the Sanfilippo variant, is nevertheless associated with mental retardation; a characteristic facies, build, and temperament ;and with hepatomegaly and radiological features. The most useful laboratory diagnostic procedures have been bone marrow, skin and liver biopsies. Accumulation of mucopolysaccharide has been most prominent in the liver, but is also visible in connective and reticulo-endothelial tissue. The conventionally described methods of fixation of tissue mucopolysaccharide proved unsatisfactory. Cryostat sections fixed either with formol vapour or cold acetone and stained with either alcoholic or aqueous toluidine blue or with alcian blue were found to be satisfactory in demonstrating this substance, part of which appeared to be particularly soluble in water. RHABDOMYOLYSIS I N HEAT STROKE

BALE,PATRICIA M., CALVERT, A. F. & CLIFTON-BLIGH, P. A‘ez South Wales

Sydney Hospital,

Heat stroke has been known since biblical times, and muscular exertion has long been recognized as a precipitating factor. However, muscle has seldom been examined histologically in heat stroke. The authors have studied two patients who collapsed after strenuous exertion on a sultry summer day, and were treated by repeated dialyses for oliguria and refractory hyperkalaemia. One died after five days and the other recovered. Skeletal muscles examined at necropsy from the first patient and by biopsy from the second, all showed necrosis of many fibres and central vacuolation of others. Although muscle necrosis has been noticed in only nine of the many cases of heat stroke in the English medical literature, the frequency of renal failure with so-called ‘haemoglobinuric’ nephrosis suggests that rhabdomyolysis is a common occurrence. We consider that it may be an important cause of systemic disturbances and especially of serum potassium alterations in exertional heat stroke. THE DEVELOPMENT OF GLOMERULONEPHRITIS I N NZB/NZW MICE

HICKS, J. D.

Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria

From a study of the mortality of female B/W mice an estimate was made that the onset of the disease probably lay between 100-150 days. This was supported by a study of other phenomena such as the development of proteinuria and of azotaemia. T h e study of immunological reactions revealed an increase in positive tests during this same period. Examination of histological material obtained by nephrectomy demonstrated changes which commenced in the glomeruli at about 150 days, with the development of a cellular glomerulonephritis during the next 20 days. This proceeded to the typical lesion of gross glomerular damage with extensive hyaline exudate and loop thickening, together with considerable capsular proliferation within the next 50-100 days. Somewhat varied accounts have been given of electron microscope studies, and features seen have been likened to the changes in nephrotoxic serum nephritis as well as to the lesions seen in antigenantibody complex nephritis. The author found deposits mainly on the subendothelial side of the basement membrane in early phases of the spontaneous disease. Subepithelial deposits were present in Masugi nephritis, were minimal in the spontaneous disease and appeared no more frequently at 150 days than in much younger mice. Similar, apparently sporadic changes were found in the basement membrane in young

ABSTRACTS O F A N N U A L S C I E N T I F I C M E E T I N G

1968 155

mice of unrelated C57/B1 and CBA strains. T o explain the sudden onset of widespread glomerulonephritis at about 150 days of age a further mechanism must be postulated. RAPID MICROBIOLOGICAL ASSAY AND DIAGNOSTIC PROCEDURES

FAINE, S. & KNIGHT,D.

Monash University, Clayton, Victoria Blood levels of antibiotics (kanamycin, gentamicin) were measured in one hr. or less with an accuracy and a reproducibility comparable with plate- or tube-assay methods, using samples of 0.1-0.3 ml. of patient’s serum. The principle is based on measurement and recording the fall of p H in a culture of a heavy inoculum of test organisms, whose fermentation was inhibited by antibiotic proportionately to concentration. Two methods were described. A similar instrumented approach to early diagnosis of blood cultures and of urine cultures is under investigation. Both methods lend themselves to feeding of instrumented data into an automated integrated laboratorydata processing system. INFECTIONS WITH GRAM-NEGATIVE BACILLI

HUNTER, W. F. & ATKINSON, H. M.

Royal Newcastle Hospital, New South Wales This paper reported the results of an investigation of gram-negative bacilli isolated in the Bacteriology Department of Royal Newcastle Hospital in the course of the routine examination of all specimens (excepting faeces) received during the period from October 1967 to May 1968. Involved were 1,228 strains of gram-negative bacilli. Methods used to characterize the organisms were given and the types of organisms identified on the basis of these methods listed. Some of the more interesting organisms were briefly mentioned. It was found that members of the genus Acinetobacter made up approximately 3% of the organisms, Serratia rnarcescens approximately 20/, and members of the genus Aeromonas approximately 1%. I t was concluded that it seems probable that some widely unrecognized organisms, or organisms hitherto thought not to be pathogenic, may indeed cause disease in man. INCLUSION CONJUNCTIVITIS IN AUSTRALIA

The Women’s Hospital, Crown Street, Sydney, New South Wales HANSMAN, D.

Inclusion conjunctivitis is a localized infection of the eye, due to an agent related to that which causes trachoma. When newborn babies are affected, the infection is usually derived from the cervix of the mother during birth. Within a period of two yr. 16 cases which were clinically typical of inclusion conjunctivitis were observed. The incidence was approximately 2/1,000 births. The babies were 4 to 9 days old when conjunctivitis developed and all showed a purulent or mum-purulent exudate from the eye. Oedema of the lid and chemosis were often marked and in most instances mainly involved the lower lid. Most of the cases (15/16) showed a similar cellular pattern in conjunctival smears stained with dilute Giemsa. Numerous neutrophils were seen together with mononuclear cells. In three cases basophilic (‘initial body’) inclusions were detected and in a further three cases, Halberstaedter-Prowazek inclusions were found. Although trachoma has been recognized in Australia since the nineteenth century, this is believed to be the first report of neonatal inclusion conjunctivitis. ASPECTS 0F RAD 10-I MMU N OASSAY

CATT,K. J., TREGEAR, G. W., BURGER, H. G., BEST,J. B. & CAMERON, D. P. Department of Medicine, Monash University, and Medical Research Centre, Prince Henry’s Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria T h e development of radio-immunoassay has allowed extensive investigation of the circulating levels of peptide hormones, particularly the pituitary hormones. The method is both sensitive and specific and measurement down to the picogram range is possible under ideal conditions. All radio-immunoassay procedures are based on the competition between labelled and unlabelled