Histoplasmin sensitivity among cavers in Jamaica

Histoplasmin skin tests were conducted on a group of 30 Europeans residents in Jamaica. Ten subjects with no exposure to a guano-cave environment showed a negative response to the test. Two of eight subjects who had made only a single cave visit showed positive reactions. All twelve subjects with a history of frequent visits to guano-caves showed a positive response. The significance of these data to local levels of histoplasmin sensitivity and the ocurrence of cave-mediated outbreaks of histoplasmosis are discussed (AU)

The direct determination of porosity in human vertebral trabecular bone samples: a study of 49 post-mortem cases

A procedure for the determination of vertebral trabecular bone "Porosity" is described. The method employs the determination of the volume of trabecular bone tissue by means of displacement in organic solvent. Data from 49 post-mortem subjects is presented and shows that some 16 percent of this group have a bone porosity level 50 percent or more below that of normal mature bone (AU)

Histoplasmosis in Jamaican caves

Histoplasmosis has been demonstrated to result from excessive disturbance of bats in a wet Jamaican cave, in contrast to previous reports of its restriction to dry, dusty caves elsewhere in the tropics. (AU)

The determination of hypoglycin-A in blood and plasma

Hypoglycin-A, the causative agent of vomiting sickness, was added to samples of human blood plasma and whole haemolysed blood and the quantitative recovery of the compound by means of comparison of the amino acid profiles before and after bromination of the samples was investigated. The method was found to be suitable for the estimation of the compound in blood or plasma down to a level of about 1 æmole/100ml. Analyses of blood samples from cases of suspected ackee poisoning, using the method reported, proved negative. The implications of this are discussed (AU)