A fulminahg epidemic of arsenic poisoning has never been encountered as that occurring in Kansai of Japan in the summer, 1955. This is the report in which the abstracts of pathologic features of 7 autopsied babies, 1 female and 6 males, who have been fed for several weeks with dry milk contaminated with inorganic arsenic mixed in additional minerals. From this reason, the patients consisted of babies whose age was almost exclusively less than 12 months.
Clinical manifestations ;The major clinical symptoms seen among moderately to severely diseased patients were those as follows ;-1) Anemia, moderate to severe.2) Hepatomegaly, associated with occasional ascites.3) Fever up to 39"C, continued or remittent.
Summary
1) Hyaline membrane disease, as a pathological entity was studied histologically and biochemically. Histochemical tests routinely available, failed to reveal specific identifiable characteristics between hyaline membrane and other interalveolar foreign amorphous matter.
2) Observation from our experimental results on rabbits and from autopsied materials of newborns and others, disclosed that hyaline membrane is a pattern of membranous alveolar lining and is derived from any source of inflammatory exudate, edema fluid and probably from aspirated amniotic sac content.
3) Hyaline membrane and congenital alveolar dysplasia (Mac Mahon) are of distinctly different entities. Hyaline membrane is a foreign matter precipitated over the basement membranes of terminal air spaces, while the latter is a developmental defect of distal respiratory structures.
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