Countercurrent immunoelectrophoresis in the evaluation of childhood infections

Samples of CSF, serum, and urine from 162 children with a clinical diagnosis of possible bacterial infection were examined by CIE within 1 hr of admission to the hospital. Results obtained were compared to information derived from gram stain and bacterial cultures of these specimens. Thirty-eight of 59 patients with culturally proved bacterial infections had positive CIE determinations at the time of admission. Highest correlation between culture and CIE results was in patients with meningitis due to Hemophilus influenzae type b while poorest correlation was obtained in children with pneumococcal septicemia. PRP within serum or CSF was quantitated on 21 occasions in patients with H. influenzae meningitis. Patients who experienced sequelae of their meningitis had significantly (p less than 0.005-0.025) higher levels of PRP within CSF and serum than those whose recovery was uneventful.     

Sexual precocity in association with septo-optic dysplasia and hypothalamic hypopituitarism.

Sexual precocity in association with abnormalities of the central nervous system is well known, but its occurrence with hypothalamic hypopituitarism is most unusual. We report five females with septo-optic dysplasia, blindness, and multiple pituitary tropic hormone deficiencies: all were growth hormone and adrenocorticotropic hormone deficient; two had diabetes insipidus; one had sexual precocity, and one had early pubertal maturation, whereas three were prepubertal and responded to administration of synthetic gonadotropin-releasing hormone. These children retained ability to secrete gonadotropins despite the presence of anterior hypothalamic disease. Experimental data from primates plus our observations on these patients raise questions about the role of the anterior hypothalamus in gonadotropin secretion in man.