Acute loss of vision and alcoholic intoxication suggests the possibility of methanol poisoning. In this report we describe an alcoholic patient who complained of blindness after recovering from alcoholic pancreatitis and delirium tremens. Visual acuity was severely impaired and fundoscopy revealed florid bilateral cotton wool spots and a cherry red spot at the right macula. Such appearances hav...

Immunoglobulin deposition in alcoholic and non-alcoholic liver disease was studied using an indirect immunoperoxidase technique. A continuous pattern of IgA deposition, with IgA outlining the sinusoids, was shown to be a specific and sensitive marker for liver disease caused by alcohol in both cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic livers. The sensitivity was lowest in cases of alcoholic disease showing f...

Levels of copper, zinc, calcium and magnesium were measured in alcoholic beverages (whiskies, gins, rums, liquors, brandies, wines and beers) and by-products (non-alcoholic liquors and vinegars) using flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). Mineral concentrations were found to be significantly different between the nine alcoholic and non-alcoholic by-products studied (p < 0.001). In distil...

Liver regeneration is necessary to recover from alcoholic liver injury. Herein, we review evidence that ethanol interferes with liver regeneration. Briefly, alcoholic fatty livers demonstrate increased rates of hepatocyte death. The latter provides a regenerative stimulus. However, unlike mature hepatocytes in healthy adult livers, most surviving mature hepatocytes in alcoholic fatty livers can...

Using an indirect immunofluorescence technique liver membrane antibodies of IgG and IgA class have been demonstrated in a statistically significant proportion of sera from patients with alcoholic hepatitis and alcoholic cirrhosis. IgG and IgA class antibodies were found respectively in 23 and 25% of 48 patients with alcoholic hepatitis, in 27 and 33% of 84 with active cirrhosis, and 67 and 58% ...

Autonomic nervous system integrity has been assessed in 30 alcoholic subjects and 30 age-sex matched controls using five simple tests of cardiovascular responses. There was evidence of parasympathetic neuropathy alone in five of the alcoholic subjects (16%) and of combined parasympathetic and sympathetic neuropathy in an additional six (20%). None of the controls showed any abnormality. Within ...

A self-administered questionnaire was used to compare selected psychosocial variables of 306 convicted male drunk drivers with those of 294 alcoholics and 253 controls. The drunk driver group fell between the other groups on many parameters but resembled the alcoholic group on many others. While over 68% of the drunk drivers appeared to be alcoholics, in general they showed significantly less p...

BACKGROUND Alcoholic hepatitis is associated with altered hepatic artery hemodynamics. Maddrey's discriminant function (MDF) can identify patients with poor prognosis (DF >32). We studied hepatic artery hemodynamic parameters of hepatic artery diameter (HAD), resistive index (RI) and pulsatility index (PI) in severe acute alcoholic hepatitis (SAAH) and for the presence of correlation of paramet...

The extracts of 17 spices commonly used in Egypt as food condiments were screened for their antimicrobial activities against 7 standard microbial strains (S. aureus, B. subtilis, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. typhi, C. albicans and A. niger). Among the tested alcoholic extracts only 3 (clove, thyme and cinnamon) showed broad spectrum antimicrobial activities. Garlic juice too showed broad spectrum...