A regional telephone pacemaker follow-up service has been established in the west of Scotland. Medical care is provided by clinics at district general hospitals in

SummaryIdiopathic pulmonary haemosiderosis (IPH) is a rare disorder affecting mainly children and adolescents, and is usually fatal. However, there is increasing evidence that the aetiology of this condition is immunological, and that immunosuppressives may prolong remission.Two cases are reported, one of which has the atypical feature of a malabsorption syndrome. This has not been previously reported. The literature is reviewed and current ideas on the postulated immunological basis to IPH are discussed.

A 59Fe labelled preparation has been used to follow the distribution and fate of intravenously administered iron-dextran (Imferon) in 10 patients with iron deficiency anaemia and three non-anaemic adult female subjects.

Since it was first reported by Kuhn in 1957, the value of imipramine in the treatment of depressive illness has become generally recognized and confirmed by clinical trials (Blair, 1960; Daneman, 1961; Rees et al., 1961). It continues to hold an important place in therapy despite the introduction of many other antidepressant drugs and the occasional adverse report (Ashby & Collins 1961). Nevertheless the indications for its use are by no means established. It has been claimed that certain types of depression respond better than others: “psychotic” better than “neurotic” (Azima, 1959), “endogenous” better than “reactive” (Ball and Kiloh, 1959). Yet the difficulty of making these categorical distinctions, and of making reliable comparisons between the findings based upon them by different workers remains notorious. It is clear, however, that only a proportion of depressed patients respond well to imipramine. It is also certain that within the group which does respond well are to be found representatives of every type and degree of depressive state. There is evident need, therefore, for information that will help to indicate which characteristics of an individual will render him more or less susceptible to imipramine, and there does not appear to have been any study particularly devoted to this. In this paper we give the results of correlating certain clinical features of depression with the response to treatment by this drug.