Spinal cord tumor-associated syrinx mimicking abdominal epilepsy: a rare cause of childhood abdominal pain.

A 10-year-old child presented with recurrent abdominal pain. Abdominal epilepsy was suspected as conventional criteria for the diagnosis were met, including an apparent therapeutic response to anticonvulsant medication. Seven months later the patient developed recurrent abdominal pain, a gait disorder, and atrophy of the right thigh and calf. Magnetic resonance imaging of the spine revealed a thoracic syringomyelia. Anticonvulsant medications were discontinued and a syringoperitoneal shunt was placed with resolution of symptoms. This appears to be a previously undescribed presentation for syringomyelia and emphasizes the importance of considering alternative central nervous system disorders before the diagnosis of abdominal epilepsy is made.

Different weekly changes in immune response in virus-transformed cell-injected mice fed two different diets.

Changes in tumor development and in certain immune responses were investigated at 7-weekly intervals after subcutaneous injection of 5 X 10(5) herpes simplex virus Type 2-transformed cells (H238 cells) into male BALB/c mice fed 2 different diets. One diet contained 11% casein and 5% fat while the other had 11% supplemented wheat gluten and 30% fat. Weanling mice (140/group) were fed one or the other of the diets for 12 weeks before injection and subsequent testing of 15 injected and 5 non-injected mice from each diet group each week. In mice fed the low-fat diet containing casein both tumor incidence and tumor volume were significantly lower (P less than or equal to 0.05) than in the group fed the 30% fat diet containing supplemented wheat protein. The casein-fed mice also had less splenomegaly and a higher proportion of mature lymphocytes in the spleen during tumor growth. The proliferative capability of the spleen cells after phytohemagglutinin stimulation was enhanced 2 weeks after H238 cell injection only in the casein-fed mice.