Helvetica paediatrica acta
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A case of a newborn infant with clinical and angiocardiographic signs of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) is presented. The baby died after a short therapy with beta-blockers. Light- and electron-microscopic investigations showed severe disorganization of muscular cellular arrangement and disturbances of intracellular structures of the interventricular septum. HOCM is a genetically determined disease which can present clinically in the newborn period and may simulate congenital cardiac malformations.
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An infant is described with acrodermatitis enteropathica, who initially presented with severe and intractable watery diarrhea. Diagnosis was established at the age of eleven weeks. ⋯ Eleven days after oral zinc supplement (100 mg elemental zinc per day), the skin lesions had healed. The high therapeutic doses of zinc required for healing are suggestive that zinc malabsorption is an important pathogenetical factor of this disease.