The prevalence of antibodies against Leishmania donovani in selected domestic and wild animal species in 2 villages in Sudan with active L. donovani transmission in humans was investigated. Screening of domestic animals (donkeys, cows, sheep, goats, camels and dogs) with the direct agglutination test (DAT) detected reaction rates above the cut-off titres in donkeys (68.7%), cows (21.4%) and goats (8.5%), and which were also found in wild rats (5.5%). Sera of sheep, camels and dogs had a weak agglutination reaction below the cut-off titre. Testing of the same sera by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), against a lysate of L. donovani promastigotes, showed reaction rates above the cut-off optical density in cows (47.6%), goats (13.6%), and in rats (4.1%). No Leishmania parasite was isolated from spleen, liver, bone-marrow or spleen of Nile rats.

This study shows that perineural PRP injection could promote improvement of peripheral neuropathy sensibility in patients with leprosy. More research is needed to better determine the effects of PRP in nerve regeneration.

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An experimental chronic relapsing demyelinating neuropathy was produced by immunizing adult Lewis rats with bovine myelin in low (2.5 mg) and high (5 mg) doses, with and without Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the adjuvant. Each regime produced a similar disease course: acute severe hind limb weakness was followed by apparent recovery and then reappearance of mild neurological deficit with occasional spontaneous exacerbations. The partially recovered animals were relatively resistant to reimmunization with myelin. Immunization of four-week-old rats with myelin in complete adjuvant produced disease with a similar course. Subsequent immunization of these juvenile rats with adjuvant alone precipitated exacerbations. In the late stages, the prominent changes in peripheral nerves and nerve roots were axon loss, axonal regeneration and remyelination while inflammatory cell infiltration was confined to occasional foci. Onion bulb formation was extremely common in the dorsal root ganglia and affected in particular the nerve fibres close to the dorsal root ganglion cells. The cells forming the onion bulbs resembled the satellite cells surrounding the axon hillocks. Onion bulb formation also occurred in the portion of the ventral roots adjacent to the dorsal root ganglion but was rare elsewhere. Immunocytochemistry revealed only occasional lymphocyte infiltration but there was increased Class I and Class II MHC antigen expression throughout the peripheral nervous system. The results are relevant to the interpretation of biopsies from patients with chronic demyelinating neuropathy of possible inflammatory or autoimmune origin.

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1 Aminoglutethimide (AG) 500 mg was administered orally to four normal volunteers and eight patients undergoing treatment for metastatic breast cancer. In each subject the acetylator phenotype was established from the monoacetyldapsone (MADDS)/dapsone (DDS) ratio. 2 Acetylaminoglutethimide (acetylAG) rapidly appeared in the plasma and its disposition paralleled that of AG. 3 A close relationship (P < 0.01) was observed between the acetyl AG/AG and MADDS/DDS ratio suggesting that AG may undergo polymorphic acetylation like DDS. 4 AG half-life was 19.5 + 7.7 h in seven fast acetylators of DDS and 12.6 + 2.3 h in five slow acetylators and its apparent metabolic clearance was significantly (P < 0.01) related to the acetylAG/AG ratio. 5 Over 48 h the fast acetylators excreted 7.7 + 4.4% of the administered AG dose in the urine as unchanged AG as compared to 12.4 + 2.8% in slow acetylators. A much smaller fraction of the dose was excreted as acetylAG: 3.6 + 1.5% by fast and 1.9 ± 1.0% by slow acetylators respectively. 6 After 7 days treatment with AG at an accepted clinical dose regimen to the eight patients there were significant reductions in the half-lives of AG (P < 0.01) and acetylAG (P < 0.01) and a trend (0.1 > P > 0.05) towards reduction of the acetylAG/ AG ratio which became significant (P < 0.05) if the one patient on a known enzyme inducer was omitted. The mean apparent volume of distribution was not significantly (P > 0.1) altered but the mean apparent systemic clearance of AG was increased (P < 0.05). These changes are attributed to auto-induction of oxidative enzymes involved in AG metabolism.

1. Eight cases of monarticular brucellar arthritis in children are described. They have been followed up from between one and six years and all are now fully active and clinically normal. 2. The history was usually short, with limp, swelling of the joint and pain as the presenting symptoms. Constitutional disturbance was slight in all cases. 3. Diagnosis was confirmed by high concurrent serum agglutinin titres which were not found in control children of the same age from the same areas. Mercaptoethanol resistant antibody (IgG) and complement fixing antibodies were also demonstrated in the sera of four cases. One child had a positive blood culture. 4. The condition responded rapidly to rest and splintage and, to date, recovery seems to have been complete.