Eosinophilic endomyocardial disease due to high grade chest wall sarcoma.

Eosinophilic endomyocardial disease is characterised by persisting blood eosinophilia and acute endocardial lesions which progress to endomyocardial fibrosis. In most cases the cause is unknown but it has been described in association with malignant tumours. A fatal case is presented of a 64 year old woman with this disease due to a high grade sarcoma of the chest wall, an association not previously reported.

Experience of thin cutaneous melanomas (less than 0.76 mm and less than 0.85 mm thick) in a large plastic surgery unit: a 5 to 17 year follow-up.

The detailed histological findings of 728 melanoma patients treated at Frenchay Hospital during the period 1967 to 1978 have been fully reviewed and analysed. Of these, 75 patients with lesions less than 0.76 mm thick and 15 with lesions greater than 0.75 mm and less than 0.85 mm thick have been identified using a computerised data base. The general practitioners of all the patients in the series have been approached and the clinical histories found in nearly every case (69/75 and 15/15) thus providing a follow-up period of 5 to 17 years. A number of fatal melanomata have been found in these two groups. The histopathological features have been related to the known prognosis in an attempt to characterise the lethal lesions. No statistically significant relationship could be found between prognosis and any histological feature, including specifically the amount of regression within the lesion. However, it was found that assessment of the ratio of the uninvolved dermis beneath the tumour to tumour thickness itself might prove helpful in future case evaluation.

Prevention of effects of alcohol intoxication by naloxone.

In a double-blind, cross-over study of twenty male volunteers intravenous injection of 0.4 mg naloxone prevented the impairment of psychomotor performance induced by low levels of blood alcohol. The possibility that alcohol produces intoxication by stimulating the release of endogenous opioid peptides should be investigated.