Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anaemia worldwide, and it is more prevalent in developing countries (1). Many signs and symptoms are related to iron deficency, pica being one of the most intriguing and yet unexplained. The causes and risk factors of pica are not well-established. We report the case of a woman with irondeficency anaemia, who craved for ground coffee powder. We explor...

OBJECTIVE To report experience with the treatment of complications of vinyl glove ingestion in mentally retarded patients with pica. DESIGN A retrospective case series. SETTING Two university-affiliated hospitals. PATIENTS Five mentally retarded patients, 4 with a history of pica, who were admitted for the management of complications resulting from the ingestion of vinyl gloves. MAIN OU...

Increasing attention has been given to Paired Assessment (PA), in which two second language (L2) learners work as status-equal interlocutors to demonstrate their L2 proficiency. Claims have been made that the statusequal format of a PA can provide useful data on a wide range of linguistic and sociolinguistic abilities. These abilities are more typically assessed through interviews, protocols, a...