Ocular Features of Hypocalcaemia in a 35-year Old Woman – A case report

The case of a 35-year-old teacher who developed persistent hypocalcaemia following subtotal thyroidectomy for simple multinodular goitre is presented. She developed carpopedal spasm with positive Trousseau's and Chvostek's signs 10 days after surgery and was found with a calcium level of 1.94mmol/l. Her serum calcium has been persistently below normal levels since then. She developed hypermetropia and early onset of presbyopia 6 weeks after surgery; by this time her lens was clear on examination. She had enjoyed good vision prior to the thyroidectomy surgery. A year later, she had developed a fully mature bilateral presenile cataract. The case illustrates an uncommon cause of rapidly progressive bilateral mature cataract in Nigeria and the difficulty encountered in managing a patient with persistent hypocalcaemia in our environment. Key Words: permanent hypocalcaemia, post thyroidectomy, refractive error, mature bilateral presenile cataract Nigerian Journal of Ophthalmology Vol.12 (1) 2004: 26-2

Differentiation in morphology and electrical signalling in four species of para- and sympatric Marcusenius (Teleostei: Mormyridae) from Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa

Marcusenius Gill, 1862 species were sampled from the Bandama River and the Comoé River in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. Marcusenius gracilis sp. nov. was differentiated from M. senegalensis (Steindachner, 1870), Marcusenius ussheri (Günther, 1867) and M. furcidens (Pellegrin, 1920) in electric organ discharges (EOD), and morphologically from all other West African congeners. Principal component analysis showed significant morphological differentiation among the four Ivorian species. Principal component 1 was loaded most strongly by characters affecting swimming power and manoeuvrability. The morphologically most similar pair, M. furcidens and M. gracilis sp. nov., are distinguished by their EOD waveforms and a sexual dimorphism in the anal fin base in the latter not present in the former. M. ussheri is distinguished by a sexual dimorphism in its EOD waveform not observed in the other three species. This system is an opportunity to study how far the fine-tuning of character displacement among syntopic species can go