Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8bljj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-07T17:47:46.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Epidemic typhus fever and hearing loss: a histological study

(Hallpike Collection of Temporal Bone Sections)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2007

I. Friedmann ,
A. Frohlich  and
A. Wright
I. Friedmann
Affiliation:
Institute of Laryngology and Otology and Northwick Park Hospital.
A. Frohlich
Affiliation:
Institute of Laryngology and Otology and Northwick Park Hospital.
A. Wright
Affiliation:
Institute of Laryngology and Otology and Northwick Park Hospital.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Hearing loss as a frequent complication of louse–bome epidemic typhus fever has been well documented in the reports of ENT specialists serving in both the Allied and the German armies in the last war. The present paper describes the characteristic histopathological features as noted in sections of the temporal bones from five British soldiers who died in 1944 of typhus fever during the last war in Eastern Asia. The VHIth nerve showed multiple ‘typhus nodules’ and there was extensive interstitial neuritis of the VHIth nerve and demyelination of the nerve fibres. There were also widely scattered aggregations of mononuclear cells in the inner ear.

This unique study was based on the Hallpike collection of temporal bone sections.

Keywords

Typhusepidemic louse–borneHearing lossconductivesensorineuralHistologyinner earNeuritisVIIIth cranial nerve
Type
Main Articles
Information
The Journal of Laryngology & Otology , Volume 107 , Issue 4 , April 1993 , pp. 275 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © JLO (1984) Limited 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, A. C., Spitz, S. (1945) Comparative study of tsutsugamushi and other rickettsial diseases. American Journal of Pathology 21: 603–645.Google ScholarPubMed
Aschoff, L. (1915) Uber anatomische Befunde beim Fleckfleber. Medisinische Klinik 11: 789–799.Google Scholar
Brockbank, W., Whittaker, S. R. F. (1944) Notes on typhus fever in the Middle East. Lancet 150–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dagget, W. L. (1946) Discussion on war deafness and the care of deafened ex-servicemen. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. February 1946: 508–516.Google Scholar
Da Lima, Rocha H. (1916) Zur aetiologie des fleckfiebers Berliner. Klinische Wochenschrift 53: 567–569.Google Scholar
Davis, W. A. (1947) Typhus at Belsen 1. Control of the typhus epidemic. American Journal of Hygiene 46: 66–83.Google ScholarPubMed
Davison, W. C. (1944) The 1915 Serbian typhus epidemic. North Carolina Medical Journal 5: 283–285.Google Scholar
Felix, A. (1944) Technique and interpretation of the Weil-Felix test in typhus fever. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 37: 321–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraenkel, E. (1921) Die haut bei der fleckfiebererkrankung. In Hanbuch der erztlichen Erfahrungen im Weltkriege vol. 8, p 117.Google Scholar
Friedmann, I. (1945) An outbreak of typhus fever in Eastern Slovakia. Unpublished observation poster shown at meeting of Pathological Society, 1946.Google Scholar
Heffner, D. K. (1989) Low-grade adenocarcinoma of possible endolymphatic sac origin: a clinicopathologic study of 20 cases. Cancer 64: 2292–2302.3.0.CO;2-#>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jirasek, A. (1982) Rickettsiosy. In Patologie. vol. 1, Ch. 8.7. (Bednar, B. et al. , eds.).Google Scholar
Kamal, A. M, Messih, G. A. (1943) Typhus fever (review of 11,410 cases). Symptomatology, laboratory investigations and treatment. Journal of Egyptian Public Health Association, pp 125–185. In Bulletin of War Medicine 1944 4: 539.Google Scholar
Merei, J. (1946) Diseases of the ear due to louse-borne typhus (experiences with 800 cases of typhus). Acta Otolaryngologica (Stockholm) 34: 572–575.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muir's Textbook of Pathology (1991). 13th Edition. (MacSween, R. N. M., Whaley, K., eds.). Arnold London.Google Scholar
Penfold, J. B. (1944) Vaccination against typhus fever. British Medical Journal 1: 114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richet, C. (1945) Notes sur le typhus exanthematique observe à Buchenwald. Bulletin Societe Medicate des Hopitaux de Paris 61: 183–187.Google Scholar
Robins, S. L., Cotran, R. S., Kumar, V. (1979). Pathological Basis of Disease, 3rd edn., Saunders, Philadephia, USA, p 277–296.Google Scholar
Schopper, W. (1943) Zur Pathologie des Fleckfiebers. Virchows Archivfur Pathologische Anatomie 310: 70–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seiferth, L. B. (1944) Uber die Störungen des Hör-und Gleichgewichtapparates und uber entzündlichen Ohrenerkrankungen beim Fleckfleber. Deutsche Medizinsche Wochenscrift 70: 23–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephenson, C. S. (1944) Epidemic typhus and other rickettsial diseases of military importance. New England Journal of Medicine 231: 407–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Rooyen, C. E., Bowie, J. H., Krikorian, K. S. (1944) Typhus research in Egypt, Palestine, Iraq and Iran. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 38: 133–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Volk, W. A., Benjamin, D. C., Kadner, R. J., Parsons, T. H. J. (1986). Essentials of Medical Microbiology, 3rd edn., Lippincott, Philadelphia, USA.Google Scholar
Wilcocks, C. H. (1944) Summary of recent abstracts. VIII. Typhus group of fevers. Tropical Diseases Bulletin 802–817.Google Scholar