INFECTION OF ACCESSORY SINUSES AND UPPER RESPIRATORY TRACT IN VITAMIN A DEFICIENCY

Abstract

Experimental and clinical evidence has clearly established that deficiency of vitamin A produces a pathologic entity classified as xerophthalmia. The lowered resistance to infection and the development of lesions in the lacrimal apparatus, corneal ulceration and of infection of the nasal passages, accessory sinuses, middle ear, tongue, and upper respiratory tract are of particular interest to this section. The virulence of the micro-organism and the resistance of the cell to toxemia are underlying principles that determine the degree of pathogenesis. We look to biochemistry to explain many of the mysteries that surround us in the various epidemics of influenza, tonsillitis, mastoiditis or diphtheria. Why does acute sinusitis, tonsillitis, acute laryngitis or mastoiditis prevail in epidemic form and change in type overnight to a greater or less degree of virulence and become engrafted on a new area of mucous membrane or lymphoid tissue? If the influence is climatic or microbic, the