Benign cystic teratoma of the ovary has a varied incidence, varying from 30 to 50 per cent of all benign ovarian tumours. This tumour tends to occur in the reproductive age group (20 to 40 years), and the majority of patients are married with children. About 40 per cent of patients are symptomless. Of those with symptoms, abdominal pain and mass are the commonest. Torsion is the most frequent complication encountered, and the presence of acute pain should make one suspect this complication. The tumour is bilateral in 10 to 20 per cent of patients. This high bilateral occurrence places a responsibility on the gynaecologist to inspect the opposite ovary in all cases of unilateral dermoid cyst of the ovary at the time of laparotomy. Germ·layer derivatives are predominantly ectodermal in origin, although both mesodermal and entodermal derivatives occur frequently.
Albino Wistar rats of both sexes were given a conditioned taste aversion training (CTA). Saccharin was used as the conditional stimulus (CS) and apomorphine-induced illness as the unconditional stimulus (US) on day 4. Amnestic treatment with electroconvulsive shock (ECS) or nitrogen anoxia were given to the rats at various points within the 180-min long CS-US interval as well as after the US. They were reexposed to the CS on days 5 and 6 in order to evaluate CTA and its extinction respectively. Apomorphine injection alone produced significant CTA as long as the CS-US interval was less than 120 min but not beyond it. Saline injections, with or without amnestic treatments, produced only an adaptation to and preference for saccharin. ECS could prevent CTA when delivered within 85 min before or 110 min after the US. Anoxia was effective at a much shorter range of time than ECS. The results are discussed in the perspectives of neophobia, saccharin aversion, amnestic agents and the character as well as gradients of amnesia produced.
Fluorescent antibodies were detected in 89% of 288 Orang Asli (Malaysian aborigines) with Plasmodium falciparum antigen and in 62% with P. brasilianum (for P. malariae) antigen. Blood films from 18 donors were positive for P. falciparum; 2 of them had mixed infection with P. vivax. Seven of the P. falciparum-positive blood films were from children in the 2- to 9-year age group. Of 17 sera from cord blood, 16 had significant levels of P. falciparum antibody and 14 of P. malariae antibody, the levels being the same as those of the mothers. None of these babies had congenital malaria. A higher percentage of male donors reacted to both antigens. There was an age dependent increase in the number positive and the maximum titers.
This report summarizes the results of a comparative study of the virulence of the "S-M," H, and C strains of P. knowlesi for Indian rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and cynomolgus monkeys [M. irus (fascicularis)] of Malayan (West Malaysia) and Philippine origins. Each of the above strains produced fulminating, uniformly fatal infections in the rhesus monkey and mild, chronic infections, characterized by relatively low level parasitemias in cynomolgus monkeys of Philippine origin. In striking contrast, the H and C strains produced infections in cynomolgus monkeys of Malayan origin which were indistinguishable in severity from infections produced in M. mulatta. The circumstances of the study precluded evaluation of the virulence of the "S-M" strain for M. irus of Malayan origin. Even so, the available data make it necessary to qualify the long-held belief that infections with P. knowlesi in M. irus invariably follow a benign course.
MeSH terms: Animals; Haplorhini; Female; Macaca/immunology*; Macaca fascicularis/immunology*; Macaca mulatta/immunology*; Malaria/immunology; Malaysia; Male; Philippines; Plasmodium/pathogenicity*; Species Specificity; Time Factors; Virulence
Hepatocystis bainae n. sp., parasite on the Microchiropteran bat, Hipposideros galeritus is described and differentiated from Hepatocystis rodhaini; it is characterized by the type of the microgametocytes ("diffuse"), the small size of the hepatic schizonts and the repartition of the colloide.
MeSH terms: Animals; Blood/parasitology; Chiroptera/parasitology*; Malaysia; Apicomplexa/classification*; Apicomplexa/growth & development
Onchocerca dewittei n. sp. was collected from a wild Boar at the metatarse level (tendons and subcutaneous connective tissue); it can be differentiated from other species by the female cuticle showing straight ridges which overlap in the lateral fields, and by its relatively thick microfilaria (length 228-247 mu and width 6-7 mu). This suidean Onchocerca displays some primitive characters such as straight ridges and persistency of ten pairs of caudal papillae in the male; but as a whole this species is undoubtedly more highly evolved than O. raillieti Bain, Müller and coll., 1976, a parasite of Equidae.
Data for the ABO blood groups and for handclasping, arm folding, handedness, ear lobe types and camptodactyly are presented for 104 Malay and 57 Chinese males in the city of Alor Star, Kedah, Malaysia. The two groups exhibit marked differences in the frequencies of most of these attributes.
The ultrastructure of Sarcocystis sp. from the Malaysian house rat, Rattus rattus diardii, was studied with the electron microscope. The thin, uniformly-dense primary cyst wall had a row of vesicular invaginations which were also seen along the wall of the villi-like projections or cytophaneres. Within the villi were spherical bodies and hollow, curled structures. The ground substance beneath the primary cyst wall extended into the cyst as thin septa or trabeculae separating the tightly-packed zoites into compartments. Merozoites had a double-layered membrane, a conoid, 2 conoidal rings, 22 subpellicular microtubules, 6 rhoptries, 80-100 micronemes, scattered lipid droplets, and sac-like mitochrondrion, beside which was a Golgi apparatus. A micropore was occasionally seen at the anterior third of the zoite whereas the nucleus occupied the posterior third. Metrocytes were few in number and peripheral in location.
MeSH terms: Animals; Malaysia; Sarcocystis/ultrastructure*; Species Specificity; Rats/parasitology
The characteristics of normal labour in 977 Malay, Chinese and Indian parturients were established from a retrospective study. Indian babies were found to be significantly smaller than Malay babies which were significantly smaller than Chinese babies (P less than 0-05, P less than 0-05). The mean duration of the first stage of labour taken from the time of admission to the labour ward was 3-4 hours in primiparae and 2-7 hours in multiparae. The mean durations of the second stage of labour were 23-7 minutes and 13-1 minutes respectively. Curves of mean dilatation of cervix and probit analysis at 80% revealed significant differences in the progress of normal labour in primiparae among the three racial groups. The Indian primiparae not only had a slower rate of cervical dilatation but seemed to reach the accelerated phase of dilatation later. No significant differences were noticed in the labours of multiparae.