A massive intestinal vaso-occlusive crisis or "girdle syndrome" in a 6-year-old boy observed as a first manifestation of sickle cell disease.

UNLABELLED: Sickle cell disease is a chronic hematologic disease with variable but often severe systemic symptoms. In this report, we describe a 6-year-old boy presenting with acute bowel pseudo-obstruction. During this episode, previously undiagnosed sickle cell disease was discovered upon peripheral blood smear analysis. The condition was therefore interpreted as a massive intestinal vaso-occlusive crisis or "girdle syndrome". Conservative treatment with hydration therapy, analgesia and a manual partial exchange transfusion was initiated. The patient fully recovered within 5 days. CONCLUSION: Girdle syndrome is a rare but severe adverse event associated with sickle cell disease that must be considered as differential diagnosis in patients with sickle cell disease.

[Cross-sectional study of elementary school children for assessing suspected effects of regional hemato-toxic environmental pollutants]. / Querschnittsuntersuchung an Grundschulkindern zur Klärung eines Verdachts auf Auswirkungen von regionalen hämatotoxischen Umweltnoxen.

To investigate the suspicion of an increased incidence of leukopenia in school children living in the more industrialised northern region of the city of Essen, blood counts of these children were compared to those of pupils from the southern region in a two-phased study. In 469 1st and 2nd grade children, neither the mean leukocyte count nor the number of individual abnormal results differ between the two regional groups. A difference in the mean hemoglobin value found in the first series of investigations could not be reproduced in a control study of 255 children, the analysis of the data pointing to a methodological reason for the difference. Feasibility, planning and interpretation of results of such a cross-sectional study are discussed.