Archives of Disease in Childhood articles from October 2002

Archives of Disease in Childhood archives from October 2002

The role of the expert witness: medical practitioners must remain objective. (Leading Article).
October 1, 2002... The ideal expert witness is a person with special training, knowledge, or experience whose role is to aid the court. Re X (Non-Accidental Injury: Expert Evidence) (1) is the latest in a series of cases (2 3) in which the evidence of an expert...

Surveillance for rare disorders by the BPSU: why is it worthwhile? (Leading Article).(British Paediatric Surveillance Unit )
October 1, 2002... The British Paediatric Surveillance Unit (BPSU) was set up in 1986 and has involved paediatricians in a pioneering mechanism for the surveillance of rare but important conditions that affect the health of children. Judged by its output the Unit...

Postcard from down under: no smoke without ads? (Leading Article).
October 1, 2002... Reading a British magazine imported into Australia I suddenly noticed the profusion of cigarette advertisements. Smoking advertising has been banned in Australia since the early nineties and its absence--like the resolution a headache or the...

Family genetic studies: recruitment issues. (Leading Article).
October 1, 2002... The success of any clinical study is dependent on the investigators' abilities to recruit sufficient patients to participate. Consideration of recruitment is important when designing study protocols because by developing complex, detailed...

Are risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome different at night? (Original Article).
October 1, 2002... Aims: To determine whether the risk factors for SIDS occurring at night were different from those occurring during the day. Methods: Large, nationwide case-control study, with data for 369 cases and 1558 controls in New Zealand. ...

Children drawing migraine. (Archivist).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Children may be able to express themselves more effectively by drawing than by talking. A paediatric neurologist in Boston, Massachussetts (Carl E Stafstrom and colleagues. Pediatrics 2002;109:460-72) asked children with headache to make a...

Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging of the brain in survivors of very low birth weight. (Original Article).
October 1, 2002... Background: Children who survive very low birth weight (VLBW) without major disability have a high prevalence of learning difficulty, attention deficit, and dyspraxia. Aims: To determine whether learning difficulty in children with VLBW is...

Parental attitudes: antenatal diagnosis of cystic fibrosis. (Short Report).
October 1, 2002... In order to understand attitudes to antenatal diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (CF), we interviewed parents from 19 families, who already had one child with CF. Nine women had chorion villus sampling in a subsequent pregnancy and 6/19 said they...

Dirt, flies, and trachoma. (Archivist).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Trachoma is the world's second most prevalent cause of blindness. It is estimated that it affects some 146 million people worldwide and has blinded 6 million. It is a priority target of the World Health Organisation and the elimination of...

Carers' perception of childhood asthma and its management in a selected Pakistani community. (Short Report).
October 1, 2002... Aims: To gather information on the level of disease awareness among the carers of asthmatic children and to determine whether it can help us draw inferences about the possible impact of prevailing perceptions on the management of asthma? ...

Successful US paediatric public health campaigns. (Transatlantic Topic).
October 1, 2002... Three US public health campaigns focusing on issues important to the health and wellbeing of children--immunisations, supine sleeping for infants, and appropriate use of oral antibiotics--achieved success during the past decade. The campaigns...

Long term medical conditions: career prospects. (Short Report).
October 1, 2002... The purpose of this study was to gain employers' views on employment restrictions for young people with four medical conditions--asthma, epilepsy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM)....

Coeliac disease and liver dysfunction. (Review).
October 1, 2002... The spectrum and pathogenesis of liver dysfunction in coeliac disease (CD) is reviewed. CD and liver disease share common risk factors, and consequences of CD may cause liver dysfunction. Liver dysfunction should be sought in CD, and its...

Heart murmurs recorded by a sensor based electronic stethoscope and e-mailed for remote assessment. (Original Article).
October 1, 2002... Background: Heart murmurs are common in children, and they are often referred to a specialist for examination. A clinically innocent murmur does not need further investigation. The referral area of the University Hospital is large and sparsely...

Children seeking asylum. (Archivist).
October 1, 2002... In 1991, 3349 unaccompanied children and adolescents (under 18 years) applied for asylum in the United Kingdom (Carolyn Bann and Ruth Tennant. National Children's Bureau 2002; Highlight no 190. ISSN: 1365-9081). Towards the end of 2001 there...

Spacer compliance after discharge following a mild to moderate asthma attack. (Original Article).
October 1, 2002... Aim: To assess MDIS usage in patients discharged from a children's hospital emergency department following a mild to moderate asthma attack. Methods: Prospective observational study of 73 consecutive patients presenting to a children's...

Early airway infection, inflammation, and lung function in cystic fibrosis. (Original Article).
October 1, 2002... Aims: To determine the relation between lower airway infection and inflammation, respiratory symptoms, and lung function in infants and young children with cystic fibrosis (CF). Methods: A prospective study of children with CF aged younger...

Cost of delayed childbearing. (Archivist).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Many people are choosing to put off having children until relatively late in life. In The USA the proportion of first births with mothers in their thirties more than doubled between 1970 and 1990. Similar statistics have been reported from...

Clinical and radiographic spectrum of septic pulmonary embolism. (Original Article).
October 1, 2002... Aims: To review the clinical presentation, radiographic findings, and outcome of therapy in children with septic pulmonary embolism. Methods: Retrospective analysis of patients in a tertiary paediatric facility in northern Taiwan. ...

Diagnosis of group A coxsackieviral infection using polymerase chain reaction. (Original Article).
October 1, 2002... Aims: To examine the relation between enteroviral infection, especially group A coxsackieviral infection, and acute febrile illness over two summers using tissue culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Methods: Throat swabs were...

Thyroid hormones before and after weight loss in obesity. (Original Article).
October 1, 2002... Background: Little is known about changes in thyroid function in obese children. An influence of leptin on thyroid hormone synthesis has been proposed. Aims: To examine thyroid function and leptin concentrations in obese children. ...

Blood pressure after repair of coarctation. (Archivist).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Adults who have had coarctation of the aorta repaired in childhood are at increased risk of hypertension compared with the general population. In most published follow up series the age at coarctation repair was quite high and it is known that...

Prepubertal growth in congenital disorder of glycosylation type la (CDG-la). (Original Article).
October 1, 2002... Aims: To delineate the pattern of growth in prepubertal children with congenital disorder of glycosylation type Ia (CDG-Ia) in order to identify critical period(s) and possible cause(s) of growth failure. Methods: Longitudinal measurements...

Beyond Bristol: improving heath care - A conference.
October 1, 2002... Tragedies that expose the inadequacies of health care systems make the news and quite often a public inquiry follows but then they get forgotten by all but those affected. None, however, has gripped the British health care professions and the...

Respiratory function in patients with thalassaemia major: relation with iron overload. (Original Article).
October 1, 2002... Aims: (1) To determine the pattern of respiratory impairment in children with thalassaemia major (TM); (2) to assess the relation between the degree of respiratory impairment and total body iron content. Methods: Twenty nine TM patients...

Pigtail catheter drain in the treatment of empyema thoracis. (Short Report).
October 1, 2002... We compared the outcome of children with empyema managed either through thoracotomy with pleural debridment, conventional stiff chest drain, or pigtail chest drain. Compared to conventional drain, children who received either thoracotomy or...

Unusual cerebellar ataxia: "worm wobble" revisited. (Case Report).
October 1, 2002... We present an unusual case of cerebellar ataxia in a 2 year old girl several days after treatment with piperazine citrate for suspected worm infestation. This is the first reported case of delayed onset neurotoxicity following the therapeutic...

Graves' ophthalmopathy. (Archivist).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... The ocular complications of Graves' disease in adults are well described but there is a relative poverty of information about children. Ophthalmologists in Hong Kong (W Chan and colleagues. British Journal of Ophthalmology 2002;86:740-2) have...

Daily bowel movements and Escherichia coli O 157 infection. (Short Report).
October 1, 2002... The usual bowel habits of 259 school age children before the large outbreak of E coli O157 infection in Sakai City in the summer of 1996 were investigated. A daily morning movement and/or frequent bowel movements may be a protective factor...

Hypopituitarism following cerebral oedema with diabetic ketoacidosis. (Case Report).
October 1, 2002... Clinical evidence of cerebral aedema occurs in approximately 1% of diabetic ketoacidosis episodes. Mortality from this serious complication is falling, but little is known of long term outcome. We describe hypopituitarism and executive...

Gastric tonometry after gastroschisis repair. (Short Report).
October 1, 2002... Gastric tonometry and intravesical pressure measurement were performed on eight babies born with gastroschisis for 72 hours after abdominal closure. Intravesical pressure was not high. The gastric mucosal p[co.sub.2] and gastric mucosal pH...

Reference data for bone density and body composition measured with dual energy x ray absorptiometry in white children and young adults. (Original Article).
October 1, 2002... Aims: To obtain normative data on bone mineral density and body composition measured with dual energy x ray absorptiometry (DXA) from early childhood to young adulthood. Methods: Cross sectional results from 444 healthy white volunteers...

Arterial distensibility in children and teenagers: normal evolution and the effect of childhood vasculitis. (Original Article).
October 1, 2002... Background: Polyarteritis nodosa is a necrotising vasculitis of the medium sized and small muscular arteries. The inflammatory and subsequent reparative processes may alter the arterial mechanical properties. The effect of vasculitic damage on...

The importance of using ethnically appropriate reference ranges for growth assessment in sickle cell disease. (Short Report).
October 1, 2002... Height and weight were measured and body mass index (BMI) calculated in 56 sickle cell disease (SCD), 57 Caucasian (CC), and 63 African/Caribbean (AC) 3-9 year old children. The SCD children were taller, but had similar weight and BMI to the CC...

Safety of the insulin tolerance test. (Audit).
October 1, 2002... Concerns have been raised about the hazards of the insulin tolerance test (ITT), used to measure growth hormone secretion. In Glasgow, we continue to use this test, adhering to a strict protocol. A review of outcome over a 10 year period...

Hospital management of asthma. (Postcard from Africa).
October 1, 2002... I thought it would be easy: basic guidelines for hospital management of asthma. How wrong I was. Constructing clinical guidelines is one of the tasks I've taken on for my year in Oshakati Hospital as a RCPCH/VSO paediatric fellow. Not...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2002... If you have a burning desire to respond to a paper published in ADC or F&N, why not make use of our "rapid response" option? Log on to our website (www.archdischild.com), find the paper that interests you, click on "full text" and send your...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
October 1, 2002... An error ocurred in the letter by S Ashraf and M Z Mughal in the September issue (Arch Dis Child 2002;87:263-4). In the fifth paragraph, the first sentence should read "According to the 1991 census data there were approximately 4000, 6-36 month...

What is the most common chronic disease of childhood? (Lucina).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... What is the most common chronic disease of childhood? According to the US Surgeon General's figures it is dental caries. Epidemiological evidence implicates Streptococcus mutans as a cause of caries and various Lactobacillus and Actinomyces...

In Olmsted County, which includes Rochester, Minnesota a total of 35 people received a diagnosis of narcolepsy between 1960 and 1989 (Sleep 2002;25:197-202). (Lucina).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... In Olmsted County, which includes Rochester, Minnesota a total of 35 people received a diagnosis of narcolepsy between 1960 and 1989 (Sleep 2002;25:197-202). Twenty-two (15 male) were under 20 years old, most of them (10 males, 7 females)...

Some children with splenic injury may have their spleens removed unnecessarily. (Lucina).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Some children with splenic injury may have their spleens removed unnecessarily. Between January 1994 and January 1999 in the Northern and Yorkshire NHS region (Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England 2002;84:106-8) 11 children aged...

Children who live at home but are dependent on medical and nursing technology may present special problems in child rearing. (Lucina).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Children who live at home but are dependent on medical and nursing technology may present special problems in child rearing. A study of 16 parents (of 14 children) and 15 home care nurses in Milwaukee (Journal for Specialists in Pediatric...

Automated fluorescent genotyping (AFG) may show subtelomeric rearrangements when conventional cytogenetic analysis is normal. (Lucina).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Automated fluorescent genotyping (AFG) may show subtelomeric rearrangements when conventional cytogenetic analysis is normal. In Paris (Journal of Medical Genetics 2002;39:266-70) 150 children with moderate or severe syndromic mental...

Retrospective studies based on parental interview probably give serious underestimates of rates of child injury. (Lucina).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Retrospective studies based on parental interview probably give serious underestimates of rates of child injury. In southern Brazil (injury Prevention 2002;86:79-82) the parents of 620 children (median age 54 months) were interviewed, using a...

Diethylstilboestrol (DES) taken in pregnancy may affect the health not only of the daughters but also of the grandsons of the treated women. (Lucina).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Diethylstilboestrol (DES) taken in pregnancy may affect the health not only of the daughters but also of the grandsons of the treated women. DES was used between 1938 and 1975 for the treatment of pregnant women at increased risk of abortion....

In Washington state (Diabetes Care 2002;25:505-11) blood was taken in 1990-93 from 4505 schoolchildren aged 12-18 years. (Lucina).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... In Washington state (Diabetes Care 2002;25:505-11) blood was taken in 1990-93 from 4505 schoolchildren aged 12-18 years for testing for pancreatic islet cell antibodies and defined autoantibodies (d-aab) to human glutamic acid decarboxylase...

The authors of two recent papers (New England Journal of Medicine 2002;346:1041-53) have concluded that the screening of infants for neuroblastoma by measuring catecholamines in urine does not benefit the children. (Lucina).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... The authors of two recent papers (New England Journal of Medicine 2002;346:1041-53) have concluded that the screening of infants for neuroblastoma by measuring catecholamines in urine does not benefit the children. In Quebec almost 440 000...