Housewives with raw potato-induced bronchial asthma

Allergy to white potato has rarely been described. We report two cases of atopic patients, housewives, in whom peeling raw potatoes precipitated rhinoconjunctivitis and asthmatic attacks, and, in one of them, contact urticaria. Type I hypersensitivity to raw potato antigens was demonstrated by means of immediate skin test reactivity, specific IgE determination by RAST, basophil degranulation, histamine release test and an immediate bronchial provocation test response to raw potato extract. The controls did not react to any of these tests. Potato allergenic constituent is currently being investigated but, as far as we know, it is heat-labile and has an MW of more than 10 Kd.     

Infant health care use and maternal depression.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether women who frequently bring their neonates for problem-oriented primary care visits or emergency department visits are at elevated risk of having depressive symptoms. DESIGN: Analysis of 2 prospective cohort studies of mothers and their infants: (1) a telephone interview study of mothers and infants after birth at an urban teaching hospital (the hospital cohort) and (2) the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey, a nationally representative sample of women who had live births in 1988. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1015 women in the hospital cohort surveyed at 3 and 8 weeks post partum and 6779 women with data from the national survey. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Depressive symptoms above the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale cutoff score of 15. RESULTS: After controlling for sociodemographic variables and parity, women exhibited high levels of depressive symptoms if their infants had more than 1 problem-oriented primary care visit (hospital cohort: odds ratio, 2.0 [95% confidence interval, 1.1-4.3]; national survey cohort: odds ratio, 2.0 [95% confidence interval, 1.5-3.0]). Women were more likely to have high levels of depressive symptoms if their infants had even 1 emergency department visit (hospital cohort: odds ratio, 3.2 [95% confidence interval, 1.5-6.9]). Frequent well-child visits were not associated with maternal depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Neonatal health care use patterns predict women at risk for postpartum depression. Recognition of these signature patterns of service use by pediatric health care providers may facilitate early diagnosis and treatment of postpartum depression and improve outcomes for women and their families.     

Calcium supplementation reduces the risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension in an Andes population

Summary. Previous studies have suggested that increased dietary calcium is associated with a decreased occurrence of pregnancy-induced hypertension. In this study 106 young healthy nulliparous women, residing in Quito, Ecuador, were enrolled in a double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial. From 24 weeks gestation until delivery they received either 2 g of elemental calcium per day or a placebo. Calcium supplementation was associated with a significantly decreased risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension, with 4.1% developing pregnancy-induced hypertension in the treatment group versus 27.9% in the placebo group. Treatment was associated with a decrease in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure over the course of pregnancy. In addition, there was a small but significant increase in serum ionized calcium levels in the calcium-supplemented group during the treatment period.     

Islet cell tumour with vacuolated lipid-rich cytoplasm: a new histological variant of islet cell tumour

Aims : A previously unreported clear cell variant of islet cell tumour of the pancreas is described. Methods and results : By light microscopy, the cytoplasm of the clear cells was finely reticulated and vacuolated. Immunohistochemical and electron microscopy studies confirmed the endocrine nature of the tumour. Conclusions : The clear cell morphology was due to the accumulation of lipid in the cytoplasm.     

Similar and functionally typical kinematic reaching parameters in 7- and 15-month-old in utero cocaine-exposed and unexposed infants

This study examined the effects of intrauterine cocaine exposure on the reaches of 19 exposed and 15 unexposed infants at 7 and 15 months using kinematic measures. Infants sat at a table and reached for a rattle, a toy doll, and a chair. Videotaped reaches were digitized using the Peak Performance system. Kinematic movement variables were extracted (e.g., reach duration, peak velocity, movement units, path length) and ratios computed (e.g., path length divided by number of movement units). Regardless of exposure status, reaches of older infants were faster, more direct, had fewer movement units, and covered more distance with the first movement unit. Exposed infants covered more distance per movement unit than unexposed infants, but there were no other significant differences. Reaches of exposed and unexposed infants were essentially similar. Importantly, reach parameters for these high-risk infants were similar to reach parameters for infants at lower social and biological risk.     

Infant moods and the chronicity of depressive symptoms: the co-creation of unique ways of being together for good or ill. Paper 1: The normal process of development and the formation of moods

The ontogenesis of moods and the process that establishes them is addressed. Moods arise out of normal developmental processes at both a macro- and micro-developmental level. Moods are part of normal development as well as a component of pathological processes and they are a ubiquitous presence that gives meaning to experience in infant and adult during daily life and therapy. In this first part of a two-part paper I will address the normal development of moods; in the second part I will to address issues related to psychopathology and therapy, especially depression and the intergenerational transfer of mood. I argue that moods are dyadic phenomena--something that develops out of the chronic co-creative interactions of two individuals--rather than solely being an intrapsychic process. I will also argue, especially when one considers the development of moods in infants, that moods make sense of the world as components of states of consciousness that give unique meaning to the individual's engagement with the world and further that moods function to bring the past into the present.     

Prevalence,Stability, and Socio-Demographic Correlates of Depressive Symptoms in Black Mothers During the First 18 Months Postpartum

Objectives: The goals of this longitudinal study were to evaluate 1) the prevalence and stability of high depressive symptom levels during the first 18 months postpartum in a sample of otherwise healthy Black mothers varying in socio-economic status and 2) the relation of socio-demographic variables and level of socio-demographic risk to maternal depressive symptom levels during this time period. Methods: Participants were 163 Black adult mothers of healthy, full-term infants. The level of mothers' depressive symptomatology was assessed at 2, 3, 6, 12, and 18 months postpartum using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). Mothers provided socio-demographic information at each assessment. Univariate and bivariate analyses were used to analyze the data. Results: The percentage of mothers with an elevated CES-D score (16 or higher) at single visits ranged from 13.5 to 14.7%, and 35.0% had at least one elevated CES-D score by 18 months postpartum. CES-D total scores were significantly correlated across each pair of visits (mean r = 0.57, all p's < 0.0001), and average CES-D scores did not change significantly over time. Single marital status, low-income status, and more negative maternal perceptions of the adequacy of income for meeting familial needs were significantly related to higher maternal CES-D scores at each assessment (all p's < 0.05). Level of socio-demographic risk, as assessed with a composite risk score derived from these variables, was significantly related to higher average CES-D scores (averaged across visits) (p < 0.0001) and to a greater frequency of elevated CES-D scores (16 or higher) during the first 18 months postpartum (p = 0.0002). Conclusions: The prevalence and stability of high levels of maternal depressive symptomatology during the first 18 months postpartum in this sample of Black women are consistent with those reported in prior studies of community samples of mothers unselected for race. Mothers with higher socio-demographic risk profiles had higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms at each assessment point.     

Allergy to penicillin unsuccessfully treated with a haptenic inhibitor (benzyl-penicilloyl-N2-formil-lysine; BPO-Flys)

In a patient with a past history of allergy to penicillin and requiring treatment, skin tests with penicillin and penicilloyl-polylysine (PPL) were positive, and a penicilloyl RAST was strongly positive, although the Prausnitz-Kiistner test to penicillin and PPL were negative. The hapten BPO-Flys was administered together with penicillin to try to prevent reactions. An anaphylactic reaction occurred on the fifth day, and treatment was stopped. Serum total IgE values increased markedly after the reaction and PK titres to penicillin and PPL reached values of 1/256. The skin test reaction to PPL was negative the day after the clinical reaction, but became strongly positive again a few days later. The penicilloyl RAST remained strongly positive throughout. The authors consider that there was hypersensitivity to a penicillin metabolite other than the penicilloyl group, e.g. to minor determinants, and for this reason the hapten inhibitor failed.     

Making up is hard to do, especially for mothers with high levels of depressive symptoms and their infant sons

BACKGROUND: The goal of this study was to evaluate the interactions of mothers with normative or high levels of depressive symptomatology on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) and their 3-month-old infants. Although successful mutual regulation of affect is critical to children's socio-emotional development, little is known about the factors that influence dyadic processes such as synchrony, matching, mismatching, and bi-directionality during early infancy. Therefore, this study evaluated the effects of maternal depressive symptom status, infant gender, and interactional context on mother-infant affective expressiveness and the dyadic features of their interactions. METHODS: Participants were 133 mothers and their healthy full-term infants. Mothers were classified into three groups on the basis of their total score on the CES-D at 2 months of infant age: a high symptom group (CES-D score > or = 16), a mid symptom control group (CES-D score = 2-12), and a low symptom group (CES-D score = 0-1). Mothers and infants were then videotaped in the Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm at 3 months of infant age. The mothers' and infants' affect during the interactions prior to (first play) and following the still-face (reunion play) were coded microanalytically using Izard's AFFEX system. RESULTS: Results indicated that male as compared to female infants were more vulnerable to high levels of maternal depressive symptoms and that high symptom mothers and their sons had more difficult interactions in the challenging reunion episode. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that a cycle of mutual regulatory problems may become established between high symptom mothers and their sons, particularly in challenging social contexts. The long-term consequences of this early social interactive vulnerability in terms of later development need to be further investigated.