Archives of Disease in Childhood articles from January 2002

Archives of Disease in Childhood archives from January 2002

Learning from the sad, sorry saga at Stoke. (Editorial).(enquiry into pediatricians' practices)(Martin Samuels, David Southall)
January 1, 2002... E. Hey P. Fleming J. Sibert Editor's note For three years, two UK paediatricians have had to contend with massive media criticism, much of it fed by a pressure group. The UK government, through its regional NHS office, set...

The Alder Hey affair: Implications for pathology practice. (Leading Article).(removal and storage of organs at Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital)
January 1, 2002... In recent years, the general public's confidence in the medical profession has been damaged by several serious incidents and the media fuelled storms that have followed. Notable among these are the murders committed by the general...

Splitting hairs: Is puberty getting earlier in girls? (Leading Article).
January 1, 2002... There has been great recent media interest internationally in claims that puberty is occurring at younger ages, particularly in girls. Pundits extrapolate the plunging graphs of the secular trend in menarche downwards into infancy, postulate...

Growth reference charts for use in the United Kingdom. (Original Article).
January 1, 2002... Since the introduction of new growth charts in the mid 1990s, there has been confusion about which charts should be used, with many districts using more than one version. Because of this uncertain , an expert working party, the Growth...

The Health Status Questionnaire: Achieving concordance with published disability criteria. (Original Article).(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Aim: To compare the Health Status Questionnaire with established methods of assessing disability in preterm and very low birthweight infants. Method: All survivors of gestational age <31 weeks or birth weight <1500 g, born in 1994 to...

Efficacy of school urinary screening for membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis type 1. (Original Article).(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Aims: In order to evaluate the efficacy of a school urinary screening programme, children with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) type 1 were studied. Methods: A total of 52 patients who had been diagnosed with MPGN type 1...

Adrenaline autoinjectors and schoolchildren: A community based study. (Short Report).(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Sixty schoolchildren prescribed adrenaline autoinjectors were identified by surveying schools in Hounslow, London; the 25 families who consented were interviewed. There was inconsistency in prescription and use of autoinjectors with poor...

Testicular cancer risk in relation to use of disposable nappies. (Short Report).
January 1, 2002... Information on the use of disposable nappies in childhood was available for 296 testicular cancer cases and 287 population controls in Denmark. No association was found between disposable nappy use and the subsequent risk of testicular cancer...

Dyslexia and familial high blood pressure: An observational pilot study. (Original Article).
January 1, 2002... Background: Developmental dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental learning disability characterised by unexpectedly poor reading and unknown aetiology. One hypothesis proposes excessive platelet activating factor, a potent vasodilator, as a...

Evidence for persistence of upper airway narrowing during sleep, 12 years after adenotonsillectomy. (Original Article).
January 1, 2002... Aims: To establish whether subjects with previous evidence of sleep apnoea prior to adenotonsillectomy continue to have evidence of narrower upper airways during sleep, 12 years later. Methods: Twenty subjects (median age 16 years)...

The effect of loratadine in exercise-induced asthma. (Original Article).
January 1, 2002... Aims: To assess the effect of loratadine in exercise induced asthma. Methods: Randomised, double blind, placebo controlled study of 10 mg oral loratadine, once daily for three days in 11 children. At the end of the treatment period Fev,...

Home oxygen status and rehospitalisation and primary care requirements of infants with chronic lung disease. (Original Article).
January 1, 2002... Objectives: To determine whether the rehospitalisation and primary care requirements of infants with chronic lung disease (CLD) during the first two years after birth were influenced by a requirement for supplementary oxygen after discharge...

Meningococcal bacterial DNA load at presentation correlates with disease severity. (Original Article).
January 1, 2002... Aims: To determine bacterial loads in meningococcal disease (MCD), their relation with disease severity, and the factors which determine bacterial load. Methods: Meningococcal DNA quantification was performed by the Taqman PCR method on...

Polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis treated with methotrexate complicated by the development of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. (Case Report).
January 1, 2002... A 10 year old boy with juvenile idiopathic arthritis is described. He was treated with methotrexate (MTX) for 2 years 8 months, and presented at routine review with hepatosplenomegaly and suspicious bilateral cervical lymphadenopathy, two...

Faecal elastase 1 concentration is a marker of duodenal enteropathy. (Original Article).
January 1, 2002... Background: Measurement of faecal elastase (FE1) is used widely to screen for pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PI). FE1 does not allow differentiation of primary from secondary PI. Aims: To investigate the relation between duodenal...

Neurological outcome of patients with ornithine carbamoyltransferase deficiency. (Original Article).
January 1, 2002... Background: Ornithine carbamoyltransferase (OCT) deficiency is the commonest of the inherited urea cycle disorders. Aims: To determine the long term neurological and cognitive outcome of continuously treated surviving patients. ...

Performance of students in the final examination in paediatrics: Importance of the "short cases". (Medical Education).
January 1, 2002... Aims: To determine which component of the final examination in paediatrics at Kuwait University best predicted the final outcome. Methods: The performance of 356 medical students in the short cases, the long case, multiple choice...

Towards evidence based medicine for paediatricians. (Archimedes).
January 1, 2002... In order to give the best care to patients and families, paediatricians need to integrate the highest quality scientific evidence with clinical expertise and the opinions of the family. (1) Archimedes seeks to assist practising clinicians by...

Nitric oxide in preterm babies. (Archimedes).
January 1, 2002... A 25 week gestation male infant, birth weight 520 g, is transferred ex utero to your neonatal unit for intensive care. On day 19 he remains ventilator dependent and is hypoxic on 60-95% oxygen. The oxygenation index (OI; a measure of...

Partial plasma exchange transfusion in polycythaemic neonates. (Archimedes).
January 1, 2002... You are a neonatal junior doctor looking after the special care nursery. You process a capillary blood sample taken on the morning blood round by someone who has now gone home, and find the haematocrit to be high at 69%. You go back to the...

Phenytoin in traumatic brain injury. (Archimedes).
January 1, 2002... A 12 year old boy is admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit after a motor vehicle collision, where he sustained a severe closed head injury. He lost consciousness at the scene and was intubated in the emergency department for a...

New immunisation recommendations in Germany. (Europe Calling).
January 1, 2002... There are recommendations for immunisations in virtually all European countries and in most countries in the world. They have been established by advisory boards in individual countries and comprise immunisations against various different...

Twice Daily After Meals.
January 1, 2002... S K Goolamali. UK: Medi-derm Co Ltd, 2001, [pound]7.50 (US$10.95). ISBN 0-9539408-0-2 If you would like to buy a gentle gift for a literate medical friend, you could do worse than this lighthearted escapade, all royalties from which are...

Caring for Muslim Patients.
January 1, 2002... Edited by A Sheik, A R Gatrad. Radcliffe Medical Press, 2000, [pound]17.95, pp 155. ISBN 1857753720 Islam is the religion of one-fifth of humanity and, with an estimated population of 1.6 million, Muslims form Britain's largest religious...

The Child with Headache: Diagnosis and Treatment.
January 1, 2002... P A McGrath, L M Hillier. Washington: IASP Press, 2001, $82.00, pp 292. ISBN 0-931092-30-2 Over the past 10-15 years there has been a large volume of research into headache, in general, and childhood headache in particular. Research...

Core Paediatrics and Child Health.
January 1, 2002... Edited by D F Haddad, S E Greene, R E Olver. Churchill Livingstone, 2000, [pounds sterling]27.95, pp 412. ISBN 0443059160 Another textbook of paediatrics finds its way to market, to take its place alongside those already in print. In...

Lancet. (Lucina).
January 1, 2002... In Sweden (Lancet 2001;358:534-8) the addition of automatic analysis of the ST waveform of the fetal electrocardiogram to conventional cardiotocography in labour improved recognition of fetal hypoxia. There were significant reductions in the...

Journal of Pediatric Surgery. (Lucina).
January 1, 2002... The most serious injuries to children from dog bites may be blunt rather than penetrating injuries. Of 39 children admitted to the paediatric trauma service in Denver, Colorado over a period of 6 years (Journal of Pediatric Surgery...

Pediatrics. (Lucina).
January 1, 2002... You may be quick to detect nits in children, but what about NITS? The US Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey included audiometric testing of 5249 children from which it was concluded that 12.5% of American children have...

Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. (Lucina).
January 1, 2002... More data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Pediatrics 2001;108:4-4-53) relate child development to a family's claim to have inadequate food because of poverty. After adjusting for confounders, younger children...

Journal of Pediatrics. (Lucina).
January 1, 2002... Somatostatin reduces splanchic, hepatic, and portal blood flow, intestinal motility, and the flow of lymph in the thoracic duct. In Hong Kong (Journal of Pediatrics 2001;139:157-9) two infants who developed persisting chylothorax after...

New England Journal of Medicine. (Lucina).
January 1, 2002... Immunisation with diphtheria, tetanus, and whole cell pertussis (DTP) or measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines temporarily increases the risk of febrile convulsions but is not associated with long term damage. Four large health...

Journal of Infectious Diseases. (Lucina).
January 1, 2002... Why do some infants with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection develop severe bronchiolitis and others have little more than a runny nose? By analogy with asthma it has been postulated that severe bronchiolitis might result from a...

International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolarynology. (Lucina).
January 1, 2002... Children with cochlear nerve aplasia cannot benefit from cochlear implantation. In Italy (International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolarynology 2001;60:99-111) two children aged 4 and 3 years received auditory brainstem implants. After...

Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology. (Lucina).
January 1, 2002... A case-control study in Brisbane, Australia (Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 2001;43:580-5) included 30 children with cerebral palsy born at 24-27 weeks gestation and 120 controls, without cerebral palsy, matched for gestational...

International Journal of Epidemiology. (Lucina).
January 1, 2002... In rural Nepal (International Journal of Epidemiology 2001;30:802-7), of 15 726 pregnancies which ended in the live birth of at least one child 253 were twin pregnancies (16.1 per 1000). Of these 253 pregnancies, 116 resulted in two live...

Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology. (Lucina).
January 1, 2002... Between 1988 and 1994 17 patients (15 girls, age range 8-15 years) were given in-patient or day-patient treatment for pseudoseizures without epilepsy at Birmingham Children's Hospital (Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology...