After detoxification from alcohol even mildly disturbed liver and pancreatic parameters, but not fatty liver itself, are associated with signs of brain atrophy and impaired psychometric performance. Age may be a confounding or contributing factor.

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Pancreatic function was determined (using the secretin-pancreozymin test) before the use of gluten-free diet in 22 patients with endemic (celiac) sprue. Water and bicarbonate secretion were within normal limits, if anything there was a trend to high-normal values. Remarkable and apparently characteristic for celiac sprue was the only slight contraction of the gallbladder after intravenous injection of submaximal doses of cholecystokinin-pancreozymin (CCK). Secretion of the 3 enzymes amylase, lipase and trypsin was decreased in about one third of cases, the difference relating both to the concentrations and the amount secreted, compared with normal control values was significant (P greater than 0.01). But in no case was the reduced enzyme secretion so marked that one would expect maldigestion. Multivariate non-linear discriminance analysis demonstrated that pancreatic secretion in sprue is quite distinct from that in healthy subjects and those with chronic pancreatitis. It is assumed that there is a pattern of exocrine pancreatic secretion typical for sprue.

Oral ingestion of about 80 ml of a 20% solution of paraquat (Gramoxone) by a 44 years-old male alcoholic was followed by an acute edema of the lungs and death within 24 hrs. The administration of corticosteroids as well as the employment of forced diuresis, charcoal hemoperfusion and hemodialysis did not prevent this acute lethal outcome. The very high initial plasma concentration of 2.56 mg/l dropped quickly after hemoperfusion and dialysis to 1.19 mg/l. In mice ingesting a 5% ethanol solution for one week the LD50 of paraquat was diminished to 80 (63 - 102) mg/kg p.o. as compared to 170 (126 - 229) mg/kg p.o. in controls indicating that alcohol is able to enhance the acute toxicity of paraquat.