Esophageal piercing - 17/08/11
| Commentary This ingestion allows the reader to see a beautifully crafted foreign body removal and to expand his/her knowledge of upper esophageal rings, up until now largely considered just peptic or congenital. I was struck by the color of the gold, now 41 years post ingestion. Realize that a carat (name derives from the carob seed, used to balance the scales in oriental bazaars) is the measure of the purity of gold expressed as the number of parts per 24 units; pure gold is 24 carats (actually 0.99). When gold is less than pure, other metals are added such as silver, nickel, or palladium, to form an alloy; this metal is prone to oxidize or corrode, a process called tarnishing, from the French ternir, to dull. The color of the ring suggests that it was not pure gold, and indeed, in Portugal, there is a unique carat designation of 19.2. Nearly 2,500 years ago, Pindar wrote, “Gold is the child of Zeus; neither moth nor rust devoureth it.” He did not know the full effects of modern ingestants and refluxed acid. Lawrence J. Brandt, MD Associate Editor of Focal Points |
Vol 63 - N° 7
P. 1063-1064 - giugno 2006 Ritorno al numeroBenvenuto su EM|consulte, il riferimento dei professionisti della salute.
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