View report page

7
microscopically showed an invasion of white cells. Following treatment with
hoemoplastin and liver extract, the general condition improved enormously; on
the morning of 26th October, apart from the skin condition, the patient appeared
normal; twelve hours later he collapsed with dramatic suddenness. The complaint
of abdominal pain, which had been attributed to the intestinal haemorrhages described
by Henoch, was found post-mortem to have been due to bleedings into the muscles
of the abdominal wall. The mental irritability and instability noted on admission
may be correlated with the subdural haemorrhage ; such a complication is very
unusual.
A feature of interest in the blood picture is the complete absence of the customary
leucocytosis, the great reduction in the polymorphonuclear, and the remarkable
increase in the large hyaline cells. The reduction of the platelets almost to vanishing
point agrees with the accepted findings, as also the absence of any reparative activity
in the bone marrow in a case so rapidly fatal.
So far as could be ascertained, there was no family history of the haemorrhagic
diathesis, nor had the boy himself given any previous evidence of it.
Reference.
1 McCririck, T. British Journal of Children''s Diseases, 1912, IX, 154; and Hobson, F. G., and
Gibson, A. G., The Lancet, 1932, I, 509