1 Tokyo Hitachi Hospital, 3-5-7 Yushima, Bunkyoku, Tokyo, Japan
The course and symptoms of MLNS which Dr. Kawasaki et al. described in the September 1974 issue of Pediatrics1 are similar to those described by Dr. Currie.2 Lymph node enlargement can occur in acrodynia.3 Sudden death due to cardiac failure is also reported.4-6
I suggest that MLNS is the "acute febrile form" of infantile acrodynia. Mercury sources in the disease could be inactivated vaccines, in addition to polluted food and old mercury-containing preparations (such as diphtheria vaccine, Japanese encephalitis vaccine, influenza vaccine and globulin) which contain .05 mg of mercury per milliliter if thiomersal is the preservative.