Qatar Medical Journal - Volume 2003, Issue 2

A case of submandibular sialolithiasis in a 49-year-old male is presented and used to discuss the published literature on etiological factors, examination, differential diagnosis and treatment options.

A young man with Salmonella food poisoning developed rhabdomyolysis complicated by acute renal failure. This is an uncommon but potentially fatal extra-intestinal manifestation of Salmonellosis. He responded to alkaline diuresis and antibiotic therapy and made a complete recovery.

A discussion of the case, the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in myoglobinuric renal failure and the management is presented.

We report the diagnosis of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) in an Omani lady with consistently negative antinuclear antibody (ANA) results and an anti double stranded DNA (dsDNA) titre of 1:640. The presence of a negative ANA with a high titre of dsDNA is very unusual in SLE

Although surgery is the treatment of choice for cystic hygroma, this can be hazardous when vital structures are involved. Bleomycin injection has been described for the treatment of this condition with variable success. Here we present a five-year-old girl with cystic hygroma of the left parotid region that was treated successfully with intralesional bleomycin injection.

I read the article by Chaarani MW et al (Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip Before and After Increasing Community Awareness of the Harmful Effects of Swaddling Vol.ll/No.l/ June 2002), with great interest. Two issues need to be addressed. The authors write i(That the habit of swaddling is common tradition in the Middle East that goes back to hundreds of years “ and their belief that in 14 months people gave up swaddling which they practiced for generations, to the extent that the numbers of Development Dysplasia of the Hip (DDH) dropped drastically from 20 percent to 60 percent is unusual Other important factors which need to be looked are the genetic factors in the incidence of DDH(1) and not just swaddling. Factors like breech presentation and oligohydramnios are known to predispose to DDH(2) and they might be the cause of decrease in numbers of DDH in the study population.

Background: Primary Sjogren's syndrome is an immune-mediated disorder of the exocrine glands. Dryness of the eyes and the mouth are the most common clinical presentation.

Material and Method: We present the clinical manifestation of primary Sjogren's syndrome in 16 patients seen over the last 6 years in Rheumatology Clinic at our hospital.

Results: Fourteen of the patients were female and 2 were males (F/M ratio is 7/1). Nine were Qataris and 5 other nationalities. The mean age at the time of diagnosis was 40.6 years with a range of 24-60.

Background: Serum creatinine is the most commonly used screening test for renal failure. We hypothesized that serum creatinine would underestimate the degree of renal failure in elderly people because they have a reduced muscle mass. If so, this would lead to underrecognition and thus suboptimal care of patients with severe renal failure.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective medical record review of all patients 65 years or older in an outpatient academic family medicine practice. The glomerular filtration rate was calculated using the Cockcroft and Gault formula and was used to evaluate the testing characteristics of serum creatinine for the detection of renal failure.