Minerva

Minerva

Minerva

BMJ 2003; 326 doi: 10.1136/bmj.326.7391.720 (Published 29 March 2003)
Cite this as: BMJ 2003;326:720

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An 11 year old girl presented with a two week history of increasing redness around her left eye. She said she had been hit in her eye with an elastic band fired by her sister. On ophthalmological examination she had an unaided vision of 6/5 in both eyes and a bright red periorbital discoloration around the left eye. Examination with a dermatoscope showed flecks of coloured pigment around the left eye that could be easily wiped off with a tissue. The red eye was “instantly cured.” We assume that the girl had used a colouring agent on her skin to accentuate her symptoms.

S Srinivasan, specialist registrar in ophthalmology, Graham R Sharpe, consultant dermatologist, Arvind Chandna, consultant ophthalmologist, Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital, NHS Trust, Alder Hey, Liverpool L12 2AP

If atherosclerosis can be triggered by infections (most famously Chlamydia pneumoniae) then antibiotics should help to prevent it. They don't seem to, however, at least not in people with acute myocardial infarction (Circulation 2003;107:1253-9). In one large trial, six weeks' treatment with roxithromycin made no difference to death rates, reinfarction rates, or any other clinical end points including stroke during the 12 month follow up.

Museum collections of old Native American artefacts are heavily contaminated with poisons used originally as preservatives. Now the …

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