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The K-cell cytotoxic activity of peripheral blood lymphoid cells from 104 patients with autoimmune thyroid disease and from age and sex matched control subjects was measured using chicken erythrocytes as target cells. Patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis,primary hypothyroidism and thyrotoxicosis who were either newly diagnosed and untreated or had received therapy for less than or equal to 1 year showed a significant increase in K-cell cytotoxic activity. Patients who had received treatment for greater than 1 year and less than or equal to 5 years showed no such comparable increase in cytotoxic activity. Within the group of patients with untreated thyrotoxicosis it was found that K-cell cytotoxic activity was related to both goitre size and serum antibody titre. Thus patients with little or no goitre showed a highly significant elevation of cytotoxic activity whereas patients with moderate to large goitres gave values within the normal range. Similarly patients with no detectable serum thyroid autoantibodies showed high K-cell activity while patients with positive antibody titres did not. It was also shown that neither the absolute number nor the proportion of circulating T and B lymphocytes in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease as assessed by the sheep red cell rosette method and by indirect immunofluorescence was significantly different from that observed in the normal control population. No correlation was found between peripheral blood K-cell cytotoxic activity and the percentage of circulating null cells, i.e. 100-(percentage T + percentage B) in either patients or control subjects.

Peripartum cardiac failure (PPCF) is common in Zaria, in northern Nigeria, but has not been described elsewhere in Nigeria except in Ibadan. The geographic origin of a series of 224 patients with PPCF was studied in Zaria, and a survey of the syndrome as seen in hospitals and by physicians in the northern states of Nigeria was carried out; information was also gathered from medical and nursing students from various tribal groups in the same area. It was found that PPCF is only common in the areas of Hausa majority, mostly around Zaria and Malumfashi, where the postpartum practices of taking hot baths, lying on a hot bed, and taking large amounts of kanwa (a lake-salt rich in sodium) are pursued with great vigour. These customs may impose a critical load on a vulnerable myocardium, and it seems that tribe and tradition could well explain the high incidence of PPCF around Zaria.

In a controlled trial chloramphenicol proved as effective and much cheaper than penicillin for the treatment of group A meningococcal meningitis in Zaria, Nigeria. A short course of five days cured most patients. Adults and older children were soon able to take chloramphenicol by mouth, which reduced the cost and simplified treatment.It is suggested that chloramphenicol is a suitable alternative to sulphonamides for the treatment of meningococcal meningitis in those parts of Africa where the organism is sulphonamide-resistant.