Education Outcomes of Children Born Late Preterm: A Retrospective Whole-Population Cohort Study

Maternal and Child Health Journal - Early life exposures can have an impact on a child’s developmental trajectory and children born late preterm (34–36 weeks gestational age)...     

Lasers in pediatric otolaryngology

Extensive clinical experience and anecdotal evidence indicate that application of laser technology has improved the management of many congenital and acquired diseases of the head and neck in pediatric patients. The general principles of laser surgery, with respect to laser-tissue interaction, must be adhered to at all times to achieve the best surgical effect. Improperly used, the laser can damage normal tissue in the infant's or child's larynx, with devastating consequences.     

A double-blind combination study of clonazepam with sertraline in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

This double blind, randomized, parallel, placebo-controlled study investigates whether clonazepam accelerates and/ or increases the overall response in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) who are treated with sertraline. Thirty-seven patients were randomized with 20 in the sertraline and clonazepam group and 17 in the sertraline and placebo groups. Male and female outpatients, age 18-65 years, met criteria for a primary diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder according to DSM-IV, as determined by the structured clinical MINI interview. Appropriate safety and efficacy parameters were measured throughout the study. The determination of efficacy was based primarily on changes from baseline to the last observation taken through week 12. Analysis revealed no significant difference between groups at endpoint on the main scale.     

Relative body fat and anthropometric prediction of body density of female athletes

Summary Ninety-one percent (n=182) of the female members of South Australian representative squads in 14 sports volunteered to act as subjects. Twenty-seven percent of them had represented Australia. The underwater weighing method together with the measurement of residual volume (RV) by helium dilution were used to determine body density (BD); the percent body fat (% BF) was then computed according to Siri.A stepwise multiple regression analysis yielded a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.863 between the criterion (BD) and the best weighted sum of predictors (anthropometric variables): BD (g·cm^–3)=1.14075–0.04959 (log₁₀ triceps, subscapular, supraspinale and calf skinfolds in mm)+0.00044 (age in decimal years)–0.000612 (waist girth in cm)+0.000284 (height in cm)–0.000505 (gluteal girth in cm)+0.000331 (breast girth in cm).Only those predictors which resulted in a statistically significant increase inR (p0.05) were included. The standard error of estimate of 0.00597 g · cm^–3 was equivalent to 2.7% BF at the mean. This equation was shown to be largely population specific. There was a range of 7.6–35.8% of BF and the overall mean of 18.5% was significantly lower (p<0.001) than that of 23.4% obtained on a moderately active reference sample of similar age (n=135). If group sizes of only one or two are regarded as too small for meaningful comparison, then the lowest mean of 13.5% was achieved by the long-distance runners (n=14). The highest averages were registered by the heavyweight rowers (24.2%;n=7) and soccer players (22.0%;n=11). The overall average for games players (n=107) was 19.4%.This study was supported by a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia     

Protection of early phase hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury by cholinergic agonists

Background  

Cytokine production is critical in ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury. Acetylcholine binds to macrophages and inhibits cytokine synthesis, through the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway. This study examined the role of the cholinergic pathway in cytokine production and hepatic IR- injury.