[Report 1965] / School Medical Officer of Health, Blackburn County Borough.

  • Blackburn (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1965
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1965] / School Medical Officer of Health, Blackburn County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    71/100 (page 69)
    cases were admitted on Monday, 11th October. The proportion detained in hospital was slightly higher on this date (53.7%) than on Thursday, 7th October, when 40% were detained. The greater severity of symptoms was limited to those cases involved for the second time ; of the 30 new cases, only eleven were detained (36.7%) on 11th October. The last original case was discharged on Saturday 17th October. One girl was re-admitted on the 18th and discharged on October 20th. Symptoms The prominent symptoms and their frequency is given below. The very high incidence of tetany is to be noted. Table 2. Incidence of Main Symptoms 98 91 91 78 72 69 68 67 66 62 62 55 52 48 39 27 14 less than 10 odd cases Dizziness Fainting Headache Shivering Felt cold Pins and needles Nausea Pain in back or abdomen Felt hot Hyperventilation General weakness Teeth chattering Tetany Upper limb only .. 15 Lower limb only .. 5 Upper and lower and face 10 Upper and lower .. 22 Numbness of face Feeling of panic Pain in chest or neck Difficulty in speaking Vomiting Enuresis and other bladder dysfunction Physical Signs A low grade fever was present in a very few cases. Overt Hyperpnoea occurred in 62 cases and tetany in 52 cases. Hysterical type anaesthesia was found in some cases. A rather puzzling finding was other areas of altered sensation in other cases. These appeared to be related to genuine nerve distribution and therefore were suspected of being of organic origin. These were usually symmetrical, one or more of the following being defined byan area approximately two inches in diameter over the deltoid muscle, areas in the antero-lateral aspect of the forearm, over the thenar eminence, some