A free health check, offered to 21417 20-63-year-old employees of the Stockholm City and County Council in 1971-73, was accepted by 15903 persons. The examination included a multichannel chemical analysis of a single blood sample. Serum calcium levels 211.0 mg/100 ml (2.75 mmol/l) and 211.1 mg/100 ml(2.78 mmol/l) were encountered in 3.9% and 1.1% of the population, respectively. Among subjects below 50 years of age, the calcium concentration was significantly higher in males than in females. This difference disappeared in older subjects, essentially because the calcium level decreased with advancing age in the men. To a further investigation were invited 178 subjects with a single serum calcium registration 311.1 mg/100 ml(2.78 mmol/l). Of this group, 95 persons (53.4%) exhibited hypercalcaemia (HC) on repeated testing. Twelve had been operated on prior to the actual follow-up and found to have parathyroid adenomata. Twenty subjects were on continuous treatment with diuretics of the thiazide type and seven had diseases that might induce HC (two had hyperthyroidism, two hypothyroidism, one sarcoidosis, one hypernephroma and one mammary carcinoma). In 56 patients the laboratory and physical examinations did not reveal any obvious cause for the HC except possible hyperparathyroidism (HPT). Eighty (84.2%) of the 95 HC subjects were women, mostly over 50 years. The 95 persons constituted 6.%0 of the total number of health-screened persons. The highest prevalence, 13%, was recorded for women aged 60-63. The prevalence of HPT in the total material was 3.6%0, which is higher than that found in several other studies. This is based on surgical findings to date.

State of the art lightscanning of the breast was tested against mammography in 2568 women in a Swedish multicenter study. The study was in two parts. One was in women with symptoms from the breasts (the clinical study) comprising 3178 examined breasts with 198 cancers; the other in asymptomatic women (the screening study) comprising 1909 examined breasts with 126 cancers. In women with symptoms from the breasts, lightscanning did not contribute to clinical examination and mammography. In the screening situation, it was poor to pick up small cancers. Mammography alone falsely diagnosed cancer in 6.9% of the patients whereas lightscan falsely diagnosed cancer in 19.1%. Lightscan was not better than mammography in young women. The study shows that lightscanning in its current form is inferior to standard mammography.

Summary. The effect upon respiration, pulse frequency and blood pressure in man during the inhalation of 100 % oxygen at atmospheric pressure has been studied. Expiration volume. In all cases an increase, averaging 15.4 %. Respiration frequency. In all cases an inconsiderable increase. Vital capacity. In most cases a decrease, averaging 3.03 %. Pulse frequency. In all cases an almost immediate decrease, averaging 9.1 %. Blood pressure. In most cases a decrease in pulse pressure. The diastolic blood pressure showed a statistically significant increase of, on an average, 5.7 %. The systolic pressure was almost constant. No toxic symptoms were observed during these experiments.

A therapy aiming at pre. and postoperative radiotherapy with concomitant chemotherapy has been used in 19 patients with anaplastic giant cell carcinoma of the thyroid gland. Radiotherapy was administered twice daily, 5 days a week; the cytostatic drugs employed were bleomycin, cyclophosphamide, and 5-fluorouracil. Patients with advanced disease (distant metastases and/or vocal cord paralysis, n = 9) had a median survival time from diagnosis of 7 months, while patients with less advanced disease survived on average 12 months. In the latter group there were 3 survivors. The patients who died succumbed to metastatic disease rather than to local growth. No patient required tracheostomy and the side effects due to treatment were usually well tolerated.