Precocious sexual development in an untreated cretin.

and in a case of plasmacytic reticulium cell sarcoma (Okano, Azar & Osserman, 1966). The course of the disease seems to be progressive inspite of temporary response, reported in a few cases, to cytotoxic drugs and systemic coticosteroids. In our case, the course of the disease took about 18 months from the time she developed symptoms until she died. In conclusion, the differential diagnosis of alpha chain disease from other malignant lymphomas that may involve the small intestine and other proliferative syndromes with dysproteinaemia appears to depend on the identification of heavy alpha chain polypeptide (IgA) in the serum and urine together with other clinical and pathological characteristics.