Mid‐trimester biochemical screening of 38143 pregnancies in south‐east Scotland revealed 127 cases (0·34 per cent) in which the maternal serum (MS) intact human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) concentration was 4 multiples of the median in singleton pregnancies (MOM). Three were lost to follow‐up but in 72 (58 per cent) complications developed or there were associated fetal abnormalities. This percentage was greatest at very high hCG concentrations, 92 per cent with hCG 10 MOM (n=12) compared with 48 per cent with hCG concentrations of 4–4·99 MOM (n=69). 22 cases had an MS alpha‐fetoprotein 2 MOM in addition to an MS hCG 4 MOM, and in only 3 of these was the pregnancy uneventful; 86 per cent were associated with abnormalities or pregnancy complications. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Endoscopic gastric biopsy specimens from 230 consecutive patients in a North Liverpool District were histologically studied by routine light microscopy and ultraviolet fluorescence after acridine orange staining. Eighty patients with chronic gastritis were further studied with regard to type of gastritis and its activity, presence of Campylobacter pylori (CP), and degree of colonization of the gastric mucosa. Miscellaneous gastritis, gastric ulcers, erosions, neoplasms, and histologically normal specimens were excluded from the study. The results show statistically significant correlation between chronic gastritis and CP (P = 0.01, Mann-Whitney test). The activity of gastritis correlated well with CP, but there was no statistical significance between the density of neutrophils and degree of CP colonization (P greater than 0.5, Mann-Whitney test). In a small sample of CP-positive specimens acridine orange stain was compared with Warthin-Starry, Giemsa (modified), cresyl fast violet, and haematoxylin and eosin stains. Acridine orange stain in the histologic identification of CP has been used only once before in a large study.

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A male child with vertically transmitted human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV) infection developed a Ewing's sarcoma of the left fibula at 6.1 years of age. We report the antitumour chemotherapy given and the response of the tumour. Six months after tumour diagnosis the child died of probable HIV encephalopathy. This is the first reported case of Ewing's sarcoma in an HIV-infected child.