Visceral gout is a disease of birds in which kidney failure causes a build-up of urates in the internal organs, leaving a chalky white coating on them. Symptoms include anorexia and emaciation. It is a problem common to caged birds. Vultures are particularly sensitive to poisoning by diclofenac, which leads to kidney failure, visceral gout, and death. Threat to vultures
The collapse of the vulture population in India and Pakistan, to about a twentieth of their original numbers, has been caused by diclofenac, which is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). Diclofenac is given to working and ill farm cattle to reduce pain so that they can work on the land for longer. Farmers leave dead farm animals out in the open for the vultures to tidy up, and the vultures then feed from the carcasses of the cattle that die, and are poisoned by the diclofenac contained in the flesh they eat. Vultures are now not present in large enough numbers to tidy up all the dead animals. Instead, dead animals are now likely to rot in the open and be partly eaten by rats or wild dogs or other pests, causing major concern and human health hazards including risks of rabies. Meloxicam (another NSAID) has been found to be harmless to vultures and should prove an acceptable alternative to diclofenac. The Government of India has banned diclofenac, but it continues to be sold over a year later and is still a problem in other parts of the World.
An intraneural perineurioma is a rare benign tumor within the sheath of a single nerve that grows but typically does not recur or metastasize. These lesions are only composed of perineurial cells, cloned from a single cell. They are distinct from schwannoma and neurofibroma. Intraneural perineurioma is a neoplastic proliferation of perineurial cells with unique immunohistochemistry and ultrastructural features, and it is distinct from other onion bulb Schwann cell-derived entities. Despite harboring molecular abnormalities of the long arm of chromosome 22, intraneural perineurioma has not been associated with neurofibromatosis.Due to the involvement of one or more nerve fascicles, intraneural perineuriomas are distinguished by a localized, solitary expansion of peripheral nerves. These tumors develop slowly or stay stable over time. References
Further reading
Macarenco RS, Ellinger F, Oliveira AM (2007). "Perineurioma: a distinctive and underrecognized peripheral nerve sheath neoplasm". Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. 131 (4): 625–36. doi:10.1043/1543-2165(2007)131[625:PADAUP]2.0.CO;2. PMID 17425397. Kum YS, Kim JK, Cho CH, Kim HK (2009). "Intraneural reticular perineurioma of the hypoglossal nerve". Head Neck. 31 (6): 833–7. doi:10.1002/hed.20965. PMID 18972430. Chung JH, Jeong SH, Dhong ES, Han SK (2014). "Surgical removal of intraneural perineurioma arising in the brachial plexus using an interfascicular dissection technique". Arch Plast Surg. 41 (3): 296–9. doi:10.5999/aps.2014.41.3.296. PMC 4037780. PMID 24883285. Emory TS, Scheithauer BW, Hirose T, Wood M, Onofrio BM, Jenkins RB (1995). "Intraneural perineurioma. A clonal neoplasm associated with abnormalities of chromosome 22". Am J Clin Pathol. 103 (6): 696–704. doi:10.1093/ajcp/103.6.696. PMID 7785653.