DETECTION AND TREATMENT OF SEVERE ATYPICAL DEFICIENCY DISEASE

Abstract

The very essence of good medical practice is correct diagnosis followed by persistent and adequate therapy. Most physicians recognize the so-called textbook case of deficiency disease and know how to treat it, but to date the practicing physician has been taught little about the very early case, the case with asymmetrical lesions or the very severe case with atypical lesions. This paper is devoted exclusively to the last group, since it is the type of case most difficult to diagnose and the one most likely to be fatal if proper therapy is not applied. Many physicians believe that it is possible merely to look at a patient and by some magic process know that he has nutritive failure. Yet, with all the experience we have had, we still find deficiency disease more difficult to diagnose than diabetes, tuberculosis, anemia, leukemia or any other general medical disease. Perhaps in no other