J Natl Med Assoc
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From 680 surgical specimens of thyroid disease, 31 cases of thyroid carcinoma found at Howard University Hospital, from January 1950 to December 1975, are reviewed. Eighteen (58 percent) were females and 13 (42 percent) were males. ⋯ Thyroid carcinoma accounts for only .001 percent of all admissions during the period of study, and is indeed a rare cause of disease among blacks at this institution. Recommendations for surgery and follow-up data are presented.
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An epidemiologic study of protease inhibitor (alpha(1)-antitrypsin) was undertaken among 599 ambulatory and hospitalized black American patients with chronic cardiopulmonary disease referred for pulmonary function testing, and 115 ethnically matched, healthy control subjects. Clinical evaluation consisted of respiratory questionnaire completion, physical examination, chest radiograph, and spirography. Protease inhibitor evaluation consisted of measurement of serum trypsin inhibitory capacity in all subjects corrected by comparison with control sera, while 200 of these subjects were phenotyped for alpha(1)-antitrypsin electrophoretic variants. ⋯ Furthermore, the heterozygous state is not necessarily a risk factor in development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Protease inhibitor deficiency states therefore appear to play less important a role in etiology of chronic cardiopulmonary disease in black Americans than among their Caucasian counterparts. Preliminary work was published in abstract form.(1)
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Comparative Study
Race-related differences in HLA association with ankylosing spondylitis and Reiter's disease in American blacks and whites.
Ankylosing spondylitis is three times less common in American blacks than in whites. It is extremely rare in African blacks of unmixed ancestry. ⋯ Other genetic and environmental factors may be of major importance in the genesis of these diseases in American blacks. For diagnostic purposes the absence of B27 is of less importance in excluding these diseases in blacks than in whites.
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Leukocyte counts and body temperature were studied in 232 untreated Burkitt's lymphoma patients. Differential counts were obtained in 153 of them. There was no significant diagnostic variation in circulating leukocyte levels and no correlation between the size, site, or stage of the tumour and leukocyte counts or body temperature. No explanation can be given for low neutrophils in 40 of the 153 patients whose differential counts were performed.
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Surgical treatment of adult subtrochanteric femur fractures by internal fixation, using the Jewett nail, has been associated with a high degree of major complications. Jewett nail failures in these fractures can produce functionally disabling varus deformities. The Zickel device is an effective means of providing internal fixation following subtrochanteric osteotomy. A case is presented in which the Zickel device was effectively used.