Non-lethal infection parameters in mice separate sheep Type II Toxoplasma gondii isolates by virulence.

The zoonotic protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii can infect all warm-blooded animals, but virulence of isolates has previously been characterised mainly by the ability to kill mice after experimental infections. In the present study, 15 Type II strains of T. gondii, isolated from five adult sheep, six sheep abortions, two pigs, one cat and one fox were examined for their virulence to young mice by less dramatic parameters. Clinical disease of inoculated mice, directly evidenced by reduced weight gain, was correlated to increase in serum level of haptoglobin and level of specific antibodies. Although Type II T. gondii strains are non-virulent to mice by lethality studies, significant differences in mouse virulence were observed between the strains of T. gondii isolated either from adult sheep or from sheep abortions. It was not possible to characterise strains isolated from sheep abortions as being more or less virulent than strains isolated from adult slaughter sheep.

Superior gluteal nerve entrapment syndrome.

Entrapment of the superior gluteal nerve can occur as a result of compression by anterior-superior tendinous fibers of the piriformis muscle and cause aching claudication-type buttock pain, weakness of abduction of the affected hip with a waddling gait, and tenderness to palpation in the area of the buttock superolateral to the greater sciatic notch. Instilling anesthetic into the point of entrapment may relieve the pain completely, but superior gluteal neurolysis may be required to effect a permanent cure.

"Snapping bottom": subluxation of the tendon of the long head of the biceps femoris muscle.

Subluxation of the tendon of origin of the long head of the biceps femoris muscle (or snapping bottom) is a rare, previously unreported degeneration of the tendinous attachments of the muscle at the ischial tuberosity. It occurs in a patient who wears out this attachment through a lifetime of hyperflexion hip movements, such as are required in bending to reach the floor. The snapping of the tendon across its point of origin causes pain and swelling in the buttock. In the older nonathlete, if conservative measures fail, the treatment of choice is simple tenotomy. The condition should not be confused with weaver's bottom (ischiogluteal bursitis), even though it may be a cause for that bursitis.

Colchicine use in the damaged disk syndrome (DDS). Report of 50 patients.

Fifty patients with acute and chronic damaged disk syndromes responded (68% good or excellent results) to minimal colchicine usage (0.6 to 1.2 mg per day), indicating that more complicated measures may be avoided in many distressed patients who suffer from disk disease. The usefulness of colchicine is slightly better in the acute than in the chronic disk syndrome, but any disk-suffering patient deserves a therapeutic trial of this possibly valuable medicament, before progressing to more complex, invasive procedures.

Glomus tumor treated by prostaglandin inhibition. Report of a case.

Glomus tumor is a very painful pericytal lesion of the arteriovenous anastomotic complex that controls circulation in a limb. Glomus tumor usually involves a digit. Prostaglandin inhibition may control the glomus tumor pain, but surgical removal is the cure. When the condition is discovered early, or when there is no gross evidence of tumor, thermography and localized anesthetic blocks are invaluable in arriving at the proper diagnosis.

Anterior interosseous nerve entrapment: (Kiloh-Nevin syndrome) report of seven cases.

Pain may be the earliest symptom of anterior interosseous nerve entrapment (Kiloh-Nevin syndrome), and seems not to have been described before. The arcuate ligament of Fearn and Goodfellow may entrap the median as well as the anterior interosseous nerves, in which case a patient may have numbness as well as pain. Rheumatoid disease and gouty arthritis may be a predisposing factor in anterior interosseous nerve entrapment.

Fatigue fracture ossa pubes due to obesity. Report of a case.

A 60-year-old menopausal woman, who was in otherwise good health, save for morbid obesity, developed fatigue fractures of her ossa pubes, bilaterally, superiority and inferiorly. This type of pathologic fracture seems not to have been reported previously.

Paramedian neuroma presenting as a ganglion.

Peripheral nerve tumors are rare, usually encapsulated and intraneural in location. A 33-year-old woman with a nonencapsulated paraneural neoplasm of the median nerve obtained pain relief without recurrence from surgical excision of the tumor. This represents an exceedingly rare disorder of peripheral nerves.

Spondylolisthesis resulting from osteogenesis imperfecta: report of a case.

Spondylolisthesis resulting from osteogenesis imperfecta has been very rarely documented in the literature. The possibility that osteofragility of the isthmus of the fifth lumbar vertabral can cause spondylolisthesis is noteworthy in the case of a 40-year-old man with trias fragilitas ossium hereditaria.

Carponavicular subluxation: report of a case treated with percutaneous pins.

While carponavicular subluxation has been reported before, treatment by percutaneous pins of the carponavicular bone has not. A patient with this injury had percutaneous pinning to hold the closed reduction of the subluxed carpal bone and has since progressed to a gradual complete return of function.

Suprascapular axonotmesis and rheumatoid disease: report of a case treated conservatively.

Axonotmesis of the suprascapular nerve mimics rupture of the musculotendinous cuff of the shoulder. Arthrography of the shoulder joint and electromyographic studies of the shoulder muscles are essential in arriving at the proper diagnosis. Axonotmesis of the suprascapular nerve should be suspected in the patient who presents with signs of ruptured musculotendinous cuff and who has a normal arthrogram.