A RARE DISEASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21580, 27 February 1932, Page 16

A RARE DISEASE

RETENTION OF IRON. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 21. A disease so rare that it baffled two doctors, and was only discovered after death with great difficulty by a Harley street pathologist, was described at an inquest at Poplar on Ernest Edward Clarke, 39, a totalisator clerk, of Poplar. The mother stated that her son complained of pains in the stomach, which rapidly grew worse. A doctor was called and her son was taken to Poplar Hospital. Dr R. O’Regan, of Wellington, now senior resident surgeon of Poplar Hospital, said that when Clarke was admitted his symptoms were those of some acute abdominal catastrophe. _An operation, however, revealed nothing, and he died. He had made a post mortem examination, but found nothing adequate to account for the cause of death. Dr Temple Grey, pathologist, of Harley street, said he had made a second post mortem examination, which revealed that the cause of death was haenochromatosis, an extremely rare disease of metabolism. The cause was unknown, and no cure was known either. The disease was due to some toxin elaborated by the liver which led to the retention in the body of large quantities of iron. These were disposed in various organs, ultimately interfering with their function. In this case there was even some in the heart. “ It used to be called bronze diabetes, but this name was unfortunate, as it occurred without bronze or diabetes,” said the doctor. “It was discovered in 1898, and is so rare that when a case occurs one has forgotten about the last.” The symptoms were strongly suggestive of an acute condition of the abdomen, and the disease could not have been diagnosed before death. The coroner recorded a verdict of “ Death from natural causes.”