Tropical Sprue

Military tropical sprue from South-east Asia.

“…small intestine. The clinical and pathological features of sprue are modified by the age of the patient (Carmichael-Low, 1928 ;Stefanini, 1948), by the climate (Manson, 1879-80 ;Bahr, 1915), by previous nutritional deficiency, and by the duration of the illness (Gardner, 1958).…”

Treatment of Stove-in Chest with `Paradoxical Respiration' in Peripheral Hospitals

“…Comments Aspiration of gastric contents might have been only a terminal event (Gardner, 1958) but the possibility that aspiration initiated the fatal collapse could not be excluded. Regular aspirations through the cannula did not prevent atelectasis of the right lung.…”

Treatment of overt and subclinical malabsorption in Haiti.

“…Pending the identification of its aetiology, tropical sprue remains an ill-defined entity whose variable manifestations are well recognized (Baker, 1957;Gardner, 1958;Klipstein, 1968). The identification of tropical sprue among the population of an area where intestinal morphological abnormalities are ubiquitous and malabsorption is common, such as in rural Haiti (Klipstein et al, 1966a;Klipstein, Samloff, Smarth, and Schenk, 1968), is thus often difficult.…”

“…To this end, 23 subjects who had varying clinical and laboratory manifestations of intestinal disease were selected from the outpatient clinic for treatment with folic acid and/or oral tetracycline in the absence of dietary supplements. Eight patients were considered to have overt tropical sprue since they met the criteria for tropical sprue which have been generally employed in the past in the West Indies, namely, the presence of diarrhoea, anorexia, weight loss, abnormalities of intestinal morphology and function, and a florid megaloblastic anaemia (Perez-Santiago and Butterworth, 1957;Gardner, 1958;Sheehy et al, 1962;Guerra et al, 1965). The other 15 patients treated had subclinical malabsorption in that none had diarrhoea or other overt manifestations of their gastrointestinal disease which would lead to the clinical diagnosis of tropical sprue.…”