The Eocene-Oligocene transition (between ca. 34 and 33.5 Ma) is the most profound episode of lasting global change to have occurred since the end of the Cretaceous. Diverse geological evidence from around the world indicates cooling, ice growth, sea-level fall, and accelerated extinction at this time. Turnover in the oceanic plankton included the extinction of the foraminifer Family Hantkeninidae, which marks the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in its type section. Another prominent extinction affected larger foraminifera, which resulted in the loss of some of the world's most abundant and widespread shallow-water carbonate-secreting organisms. However, problems of correlation have made it diffi cult to relate these events to each other and to the global climate transition as widely recorded in oxygen and carbon isotope records from deep-sea cores. Here, we report new paleontological and geochemical data from hemipelagic sediment cores on the African margin of the Indian Ocean (Tanzania Drilling Project Sites 11, 12 and 17). The Eocene-Oligocene boundary is located between two principal steps in the stable-isotope records. The extinction of shallow-water carbonate producers coincided with an extended phase of ecological disruption in the plankton and preceded maximum glacial conditions in the early Oligocene by ~200 k.y.

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Summary The ultrasonographic and histopathological findings in 12 normal and 28 injured superficial digital flexor tendons, with lesions ranging in duration from 2 days to 15 months, were compared. A consistent relationship between the ultrasonographic and histological findings was demonstrated. The echogenicity of lesions, the distinctness of their delineation from the surrounding tissue, and the presence and arrangement of the linear echoes were useful features by which to assess the ultrasonograms. Acute lesions were anechoic, a complex mixture of anechoic and hypoechoic areas, or diffusely hypoechoic. These appearances represented haemorrhage, fibrolysis and early granulation tissue. Fibroplasia and granulation tissue produced well to moderately well defined hypoechoic lesions. Chronic fibrosis was characterised by heterogeneously echogenic areas which were poorly defined from the surrounding tissue and had irregularly‐arranged linear echoes on longitudinal images. Intratendinous scar formation resulted in multiple hyperechoic foci. Extensive peritendinous lesions were readily apparent on ultrasonograms, but intertendinous adhesions were more difficult to assess, and produced ill‐definition of the borders between the superficial and deep digital flexor tendons.

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The long-term outcome of patients with a pathological diagnosis of indeterminate colitis on a colectomy specimen was investigated. The case records of 46 such patients operated on for inflammatory bowel disease between 1960 and 1983 were reviewed. Using the preoperative clinical information, pathological and radiological reports, it was possible to divide the patients into three groups: group 1, probable Crohn's disease (19 cases); group 2, probable ulcerative colitis (11 cases); and group 3, indeterminate colitis (16 cases). The patients were followed for a minimum of 2.5 years (median 10, range 2.5-28 years). During this period the probable diagnosis changed in five cases only. One patient in group 1 (Crohn's disease) was subsequently considered to have ulcerative colitis (group 2). The other four patients were all in group 3. Three were reclassified as ulcerative colitis and the fourth as Crohn's disease on the finding of a single granuloma in a rectal biopsy. No case in group 3 required subsequent small bowel surgery. These data suggest that patients continuing with a diagnosis of indeterminate colitis in spite of careful preoperative and postoperative assessment are unlikely to show features of Crohn's disease in the long term. This may be important when considering a subsequent restorative proctectomy.