Looking for melanoma

Melanoma is increasing worldwide and UK death rates from melanoma have more than doubled from 1.2 per 100,000 in 1971 to 2.6 per 100,000 in 2007. Cancer Research UK predicts that by 2024, rates of malignant melanoma in people aged 60 to 79 will rise by a third.peer-reviewe

The anatomy of the muscle wall of the human colon : the inter-taenial continuity of the longitudinal muscle coat

This report is, in modified form, part of the thesis presented by Dr. Pace for his Ph.D. The work reported was done whilst he was a Commonwealth Scholar in the Department of Anatomy at the Middlesex Medical School, London. Contradictions exist in the literature as to whether the outer muscle coat of the human colon is complete or not. There are conflicting points of view as to the presence and extent of the longitudinal muscle in between the taeniae. The material used consisted of 112 human colons, mainly postmortem, from subjects ranging in age from early fetal to 88 years. Portions from the named regions of the colon fixed in various states of distension were examined. The methods of microdissection were combined with those of histology. Sections, transverse of the whole circumference and longitudinal of the intertaenial wall, were studied. It was found that in the human colon the outer longitudinal coat, though thin in between the toenia, forms a complete and continuous layer. This is so at all ages, in all regions of the colon and in all states of distension except maximal when the muscle fascicles become separated by gaps filled in with connective tissue. Under no circumstances was the outer coat found to consist only of a few scattered longitudinal fibres and isolated bits of muscle, or to be entirely absent.peer-reviewe

Pseudoainhum : a dermatological oddity

An eight week old baby presented with a deep constriction round the base of the third right toe, of one day’s duration. A strand of filamentous material was found and uncoiled from the depths of the cleft which subsequently healed within a week. Recurrence in the same digit four weeks later raised the question of factitious disease. Pseudoainhum refers to a constricting band around a digit or limb, congenital or acquired. It must be distinguished from true ainhum, where a painful, idiopathic constriction of the fifth toe in dark-skinned adults results in spontaneous amputation of the digit.peer-reviewe

Sun direction detection system

One of the detectors is an illumination detector consisting of two spaced apart elongated strips with a strip of cadmium sulphide (Cds) deposited therebetween. Whenever the line image impinges the CdS strip, the resistance between the two other strips is relatively low, while being high when the line image is outside the field of view of the illumination detector. Also included is a sun angle detector which consists of a vapor deposited resistor strip connected at one end to plus 10v and at the other end to minus 10v. Spaced apart from the resistor strip is an elongated strip of low resistance material acting as an output strip, with a CdS strip between the two strips. When the line image is within the field of view of the sun angle detector, the output voltage at the output strip depends on the position of the line image across the sun angle detector

Endocardial fibroelastosis

This is an article delivered at a meeting of the British Medical Association (Malta Branch) on the 7th March 1967. During the eleven-year period 1955-66 eight cases of endocardial fibroelastosis were diagnosed or confirmed at autopsy. This represents an incidence of 1.9% in the 424 necropsies carried out on children less than two years of age. The frequency of congenital heart diseases was found in the same series to be 13.4%. In almost 1.2% of the cases endocardial fibroelastosis was associated with cardiac anomalies. The literature on the subject is reviewed, and the findings of the present study are compared with those of previous reports.peer-reviewe

The effect of primordial non-Gaussianity on the skeleton of cosmic shear maps

(abridged) We explore the imprints of deviations from Gaussian primordial density fluctuations on the skeleton of the large-scale matter distribution as mapped through cosmological weak lensing. We computed the skeleton length of simulated effective convergence maps covering $\sim 35$ sq. deg each, extracted from a suite of cosmological $n-$body runs with different levels of local primordial non-Gaussianity. The latter is expected to alter the structure formation process with respect to the fiducial Gaussian scenario, and thus to leave a signature on the cosmic web. We found that alterations of the initial conditions consistently modify both the cumulative and the differential skeleton length, although the effect is generically smaller than the cosmic variance and depends on the smoothing of the map prior to the skeleton computation. Nevertheless, the qualitative shape of these deviations is rather similar to their primordial counterparts, implying that skeleton statistics retain good memory of the initial conditions. We performed a statistical analysis in order to find out at what Confidence Level primordial non-Gaussianity could be constrained by the skeleton test on cosmic shear maps of the size we adopted. At 68.3% Confidence Level we found an error on the measured level of primordial non-Gaussianity of $\Delta f_\mathrm{NL}\sim 300$, while at 90% Confidence Level it is of $\Delta f_\mathrm{NL}\sim 500$. While these values by themselves are not competitive with the current constraints, weak lensing maps larger than those used here would have a smaller field-to-field variance, and thus would likely lead to tighter constraints. A rough estimate indicates $\Delta f_\mathrm{NL} \sim$ a few tens at 68.3% Confidence Level for an all-sky weak lensing survey.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication on MNRA

Man`s erect posture

This is an abridged version of a Public Lecture given under the auspices of the Royal University of Malta Biological Society in November 1969. This lecture is an attempt to describe briefly how, when and where Man came by his erect attitude. The groin is a distinctive feature of Man's anatomy. Only in one animal, the gorilla, do we find a tendency towards its appearance. Its formation results from the extension of the iliac crests and the shortening of the anterior border of the ileum. The erect posture of Man marks him off from other animals, lifting him physically above the ground. It affords him improved and new forms of vision, the possibility of speech and gesture, above all manual dexterity. Man's erect posture is in fact the symbol of his biological superiority.peer-reviewe

A tonic with rather unpleasant side effects

A case study of patient with a fixed eruption due to quinine contained in Tonic Water is described. Fixed eruptions are uncommon but not rare. They are usually not difficult to diagnose once the possibility is considered. A long and detailed history with subsequent re challenging (orally) with the suspected offending agent offers the best means of diagnosis although a 48 hour occlusive patch test at the site of the eruption sometimes may also be useful. Patient was advised to avoid all quinine containing beverages.peer-reviewe

The paramastoid process : a survey of 890 Maltese skulls

The paramastoid process is a bony projection on the lateral part of the undersurface of the jugular process of the occipital bone. It is constant in the skull of certain animals but occurs only as an occasional anomaly in man. A study has been made of the paramastoid process. Its etiology, incidence, morphological characteristics, its functional significance in animals, and the clinical manifestations it can give rise to are described. A survey of 890 Maltese skulls revealed the presence of paramastoid process in 18 of them - an incidence of 2.02%. Four of the cases were of the articular type and there were 2 rare cases of atlanto-paramastoid synostosis - one unilateral, and the other bilateral and accompanied by synostosis of both atlanto-occipital joints. The survey was carried out by medical students C. Gauci and R. Farrugia Randon and by the writer. In addition, two tables indicate the incidence of paramatoid process in the human skull and the details of the paramastoid processes found in Maltese skulls.peer-reviewe

The place of clinical demonstrations in the teaching of anatomy

Medical Anatomy is that aspect of Anatomy taught to medical students with the purpose of providing for their future needs as medical practitioners. The use of clinical demonstrations benefits the preclinical student in various ways. The student is made aware that Anatomy deals with the living functioning body. There is no doubt that preclinical subjects should be given a clinical orientation. For this to be possible not only is greater cooperation and liaison called for between the preclinical and clinical departments, but preclinical teachers should be given part-time appointments in the teaching hospital, as was strongly recommended by the General Medical Council in a recent report to the Royal University of Malta, and as, after all, has long been the practice in medical schools in the United Kingdom.peer-reviewe