Haemagglutination in acute hepatitis and other diseases

An epidemiological study of haemagglutination in hepatitis.

An epidemiological study of 36 U.S. Marines living in a barracks and exposed to infectious hepatitis was made, and the ability of their sera to agglutinate day-old chick erythrocytes was found to be abnormally high in 52.8% of the group. The other groups of American Servicemen similarly exposed showed no such deviation from the normally expected incidence of raised titres. An unexplained, abnor...

Havens' haemagglutination test in infective hepatitis.

Transfusion-transmitted diseases other than AIDS and hepatitis.

Although the major diseases transmitted by transfusion today are AIDS and hepatitis, many others also are known. These include CMV, syphilis, Chagas disease, babesiosis, parvovirus B19, malaria, Epstein-Barr infection, and many others that have been reported only once or twice. Reducing the risk of transfusion-transmitted diseases is a problem for donor centers where donor screening and laborat...

Black cohosh and other herbal remedies associated with acute hepatitis.

Six patients presented with clinical, biochemical and histological evidence of severe hepatitis after taking herbal remedies. One patient required urgent liver transplantation for fulminant hepatic failure after the brief use of black cohosh. Five patients took a combination of herbs and presented with jaundice, fatigue and pruritus. Healthcare providers and members of the public should be awar...

Weekend effect for pulmonary embolism and other acute cardiovascular diseases.

In an issue of CHEST (September 2012), Nanchal et al 1 presented interesting data about the existence of a “weekend effect” for pulmonary embolism. Patients admitted to the hospital on a weekend, in fact, had a 19% increased risk of death. These results represent further confi rmation of previous reports from Canada (cited by the authors) and from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy by our group...