An acute contagious disease beginning, usually, from several hours to a week after a person has been exposed to it. Like other infectious diseases, scarlet fever begins with vomiting or chills, followed by high fever, rapid pulse, sore throat, swelling of the glands in the neck and a scarlet-red eruption which appears on the skin. The tongue is heavily coated at first, and red at the tip and edges. Later, the papillae of the tongue become red and swollen, giving the tongue the appearance that is called strawberry tongue. Scarlet fever seems especially to damage the kidneys and one of the most important steps is to make sure that everything possible is done to protect the vital organs.The discovery of the sulfonamide drugs and the antibiotics is chiefly responsible for the tremendous control that has developed over scarlet fever. The condition is now kept mild, and the secondary complications related to the nose, throat, ears and kidneys are quite rare. Scarlet fever is a member of the group of diseases that are caused by streptococci, which, fortunately, are especially susceptible to the antibiotic drugs.*34/318/5*
(Positron Emission Tomography) is a new method of scanning which is helpful in the diagnosis of epilepsy.The principle of PET scanning is to see which parts of the brain are active, either by measuring the blood flow through different parts of the brain, or by seeing how actively the different areas of the brain are metabolizing a substance, usually sugar.To do this, an injection of radioactively-labelled glucose or a dose of radioactively-labelled oxygen in water is given. The radioactivity is taken up more readily by the active areas of the brain. As the radioactivity decays, the PET scanner detects the decay products and calculates where the radioactivity has come from within the brain. The scanner then makes a map of the brain showing the active and inactive metabolic areas. It has been found that areas of the brain which have an active epileptic focus are metabolically less active between seizures, as if the brain were trying to stop the spread of epileptic activity. Not surprisingly, during a seizure this area becomes more active than the surrounding brain. PET scanning is therefore able to give some idea of where seizures are arising.SPECT or SPET (Single Photon Emission Computer Tomography or Single Photon Emission Tomography) is a less accurate scanning method essentially the same as PET but using a different radioactive chemical which is easier to use. This has the advantage that it can be given during a seizure.*22\193\2*