This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
Plummer-Vinson Syndrome. Presented by Dr. Maurice J. Costello.
E. M., a woman aged 59, of Irish background, born in this country, has been chronically ill for three years but has not been prevented from carrying on her usual activities as a maid. She has been pale and fatigued and complains of painful fissuring of the external canthi, lips and commissures of the mouth. She has also had difficulty in eating, in mastication, in deglutition and in digestion, with alternating constipation and diarrhea. These complaints have been caused by cheilitis, stomatitis, laryngitis, pharyngitis, esophagitis, gastritis and achylia.The lips are thin and the mouth aperture narrowed, and there is glossitis with magenta color forming a background for the atrophic changes of the glazed mucous membranes. There is loss of vibratory sense in both lower extremities, photophobia, nyctalopia and painful shins.In spite of the pale appearance (hypochromic anemia), the patient is