Construction and calibration of a personal passive dosimeter for sampling organic gases and vapours in breathing zone air.

A personal passive dosimeter of the permeation type has been constructed for sampling organic gases and vapours in breathing zone air. In the dosimeter, paper coated with silicone rubber serves as a permeation membrane. The device has been calibrated for 14 organic substances. The experimentally determined sampling rate values for investigated compounds were independent of face air velocity and in almost all cases of compounds' concentration in the air. No difference between sampling rates for single compounds and their mixtures has been observed.

[Determining sexivalent chromium compounds in the air]. / Oznaczenia zwiazków chromu szesciowartosciowego w powietrzu.

Within the studies, three methodological versions of the determination of VI chromium with diphenylcarbazide have been evaluated. The versions differed primarily by the technique of elution (acid, alkaline) of the chromium sample from the filter. As optimum conditions for determining Cr VI in the presence of Cr III and Fe III, the parameters adopted by Carelli have been determined, some modifications being made consisting in improving and simplifying the analytical procedures, as well as making them more precise, and in the use of available materials.

[Sacrocoxitis due to common bacteria]. / Sacro-coxites à germes banals

The authors report 11 cases of sacro-coxitis due to pyogenic bacteria observed over a period of seven years and emphasize that this is a disease of young women recently in labour, usually due to staphylococci which enter through the genital tract. The other methods of contamination are urinary, cutaneous and dental. The onset is usually acute, pseudoembolic and bacteremia. Whereas the diagnosis is purely clinical as X ray remains normal until the 15th or 20th day, all steps should be taken to identify the germ. With antibiotics, a cure is obtained without sequelae within 3 months. Surgery is only justified if tuberculosis is suspected and in exceptional cases with abscess formation.

[Joint manifestations of carcinoid tumors of the digestive system]. / Manifestations articulaires des tumeurs carcinoïdes du tube digestif

The joint manifestations of carcinoid tumours become integrated into the carcinoid syndrome, the totality of the symptoms occurring at a distance from the tumour and linked to the metabolites secreted by the tumour. These arthropathies have been the subject of only a very limited number of publications. They consist of arthralgia, sometimes with swelling, predominantly in the extremities of the upper limbs, and linked to activity. The radiological picture includes a "band" of demineralization, and less frequently destructive joint lesions. The sedimentation rate is always increased. These arthropathies can be related to their origin only by knowledge of, and demonstration of, the other elements of the carcinoid syndrome and of the tumoro-metastic syndrome. Laboratory diagnosis rests on determination of the 5-hydroxyl derivatives of tryptophane.

[Radiographic study of the hand in 50 cases of primary articular chondrocalcinosis. Comparison with a control series of 100 subjects]. / Etude radiographique de la main dans 50 cas de chondrocalcinose articulaire primitive. Comparaison avec une série de 100 témoins

The authors analysed radiograms of the hands of 50 patients suffering from primary articular chondrocalcinosis (ACC) and compared them with those of 100 control subjects of similar sex and age. There were 40 women and 10 men, with an average age of 69.6 years (plus or minus 9.82). A chalky incrustation of the semilunar pyramidal interspace was observed in 40 percent of cases. The frequency of this incrustation was next in order of importance to incrustation of the triangular ligament which occurred in 52 percent of cases. The difference from the controls was highly significant (p less than 0.001). Voluminous geodes affecting one or more of the bone of the wrist were present in 20 percent of the patients with ACC and in 5 percent of the controls. The difference was significant (p less than 0.01). Chalky deposits were found in the soft tissues immediately next to a metacarpo-phalangeal articulation in 22 percent of the ACC patients but not in any of the controls. The difference was highly significant (p less than 0.001). These chalky deposits next to metacarpo-phalangeal articulations were always associated with chalky incrustation of the radio-carpal joint. As regards the radiological lesions, considered as being typical images of arthrosis and affecting the trapezo-metacarpal, metacarpo-phalangeal, and interphalangeal articulations, the chondrocalcinosis patients appeared to be more frequently affected than the controls, but the difference was not significant. On the other hand, a type of arthropathy occurs in ACC patients which also resembles an arthrosis radiologically but which was 5 times more frequent in them than in the controls and which in this series occurred without nearby trapezo-metacarpal arthropathy only in ACC patients (16 percent as against 0 percent in the controls: p less than 0.001); this was scapho-trapezial arthropathy. The finding of this kind of radiological lesion, particularly when it is not associated with lesions in the trapezo-metacarpal articulations should indicate the possibility of a diagnosis of ACC and should lead to radiological investigation of other sites.