Abstract
Conclusions
Analyses of the subcutaneous tissues in a 3 1/2-month-old, breast-fed female infant with sclerema neonatorum revealed the usual histologic and chemical alterations: chronic inflammatory reaction and presence of excess saturated fat. When the condition was improved repeat analyses revealed normal adipose tissue. During the course of the disease studies of the blood lipids were made. Early in the disease an increase in all the fractions of the blood lipids as well as a decrease in the iodine number, especially of the neutral fat, was found. When all signs of the disease had disappeared the blood lipids were normal. The lipemia is briefly discussed in the light of the alterations of the fat tissues, and it is suggested that a disturbance in fat deposition or in fat transport from the pathologic areas may be present in this disease. The clinical observation gives support to the idea that this tissue was meta-bolically altered.
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