High Prevalence of Developmental Disabilities in Children Admitted to a General Pediatric Inpatient Unit

Objective: Evaluate a) the prevalence of developmental disabilities (DD) in children admitted to a general pediatrics inpatient unit, and b) the number of children admitted to the unit with previously undiagnosed developmental disability. Methods: Prevalence was evaluated through retrospective record review. Subjects: One hundred ninety children older than five months of age admitted to a general pediatric unit. Results: Of 190 children admitted, 155 (81.6%) had adequate developmental screening documented in the record. Forty-nine (25.7% of total, 31.6% of screened) had a developmental disability, 22 (12.1% of total, 14.8% of screened) had a previously unrecognized disability. Sample prevalence of DD was: cerebral palsy (6.8%), developmental delay or mental retardation (8.4%), language delay (4.6%), learning disability (8.2%), and hearing loss (1.5%). New diagnoses included: three children with probable mental retardation (MR), nine with learning disability (may include mild MR), seven with language delay, three with abnormal motor skills (fine and/or gross motor), one each of: neurofibromatosis type I, hearing loss, cerebral palsy, dysphagia. Some children had more than one new diagnosis. Conclusion: The prevalence of disabilities in a general pediatrics inpatient unit is much higher than the prevalence in the community. Because almost half of the disabilities were previously unrecognized, acute hospitalization is an excellent opportunity to conduct developmental screening.     

Reproductive characteristics of a precocious vaccine line (Rt3+15) of Eimeria tenella in embryonating chicken eggs

Coccidiosis of chickens, caused by species of Eimeria (Protozoa, Apicomplexa), is an intestinal disease of major economic importance worldwide. In the present study, the reproductive characteristics of a precocious line (designated E. tenella Rt3+15) from Australia were investigated in chicken embryos and the implications of the findings briefly discussed.     

Performance enhancement in swimming: the effect of mental training with biofeedback

In this study, the relationship between mental training with biofeedback and swimmers' performance was investigated. The Wingate five-step approach was used as a mental preparation technique for enhancing the performance among 16-18 year-old pre-elite swimmers. Participants (n = 40) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (a) experimental--regular training plus the Wingate 5-step mental training program (adapted for swimming), and (b) control--regular training plus relaxing activities. After a baseline measurement, participants were tested on running and swimming five times during a 10-week period. Results indicated that the experimental group improved its performance over time on both running and swimming, with improvement being most substantial during transformation and realisation (steps 4 and 5). In contrast, the control group remained relatively stable on both dependent measures. Results are discussed in reference to previous work on the 5-step approach, including several methodological and theoretical aspects that are particularly relevant to the use of such interventions with other athletic tasks and populations.     

Chronic lower extremity ischemia: a human model of ischemic tolerance.

BACKGROUND: Ischemic preconditioning (IPC) has been found in animals to have a protective effect against future ischemic injury to muscle tissue. Such injury is unavoidable during some surgical procedures. To determine whether chronic ischemia in the lower extremities would imitate IPC and reduce ischemic injury during vascular surgery, we designed a controlled clinical study. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two groups of patients at a university-affiliated medical centre with chronic lower-extremity ischemia served as models of IPC: 6 patients awaiting femoral distal bypass (FDB) and 4 scheduled for aortobifemoral (ABF) bypass grafting for aortoiliac occlusive disease. Seven patients undergoing elective open repair of an infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) were chosen as non-IPC controls. Three hematologic indicators of skeletal-muscle injury, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine kinase (CK) and myoglobin, were measured before placement of the proximal clamp, during surgical ischemia, immediately upon reperfusion, 15 minutes after and 1 hour after reperfusion, and during the first, second and third postoperative days. RESULTS: Baseline markers of skeletal-muscle injury were similar in all groups. In postreperfusion samples, concentrations of muscle-injury markers were significantly lower in the 2 PC groups than in the control group. For example, at day 2, LDH levels were increased by about 30% over baseline measures in the elective AAA (control) group, whereas levels in the FDB and ABF groups remained statistically unchanged from baseline. Myoglobin in controls had increased by 977%, but only by 160% in the FDB and 528% in the ABF groups. CK levels, in a similar trend, were 1432% higher in the control group and only 111% (FDB) and 1029% (ABF) in the study groups. Taken together, these data represent a significant level of protection. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with chronic lower-extremity ischemia suffered less severe ischemic injury after a period of acute ischemia than those with acute ischemia alone. Ischemic preconditioning is one proposed mechanism to help explain this protective effect.     

The influence of stimulus size on measured visual field extent in infants.

PURPOSE: To compare measured visual field extent for a 6 degrees stimulus (typical size used in studies of infants) with a 1.5 degrees stimulus (similar to the largest size used in Goldmann perimetry) in young infants. METHODS: A total of 120 infants (60 each at 3.5 months and 7 months of age) and 24 adults were tested monocularly with a kinetic perimetry procedure using a black double-arc perimeter. Each subject was tested with either a 6 degrees or 1.5 degrees white sphere, which was mounted on a black wand and moved smoothly toward the intersection of the perimeter arms at 3.4 degrees /s. Visual field extent along each perimeter arm was defined as the median of 2 to 3 measurements of the position of the leading edge of the stimulus when the subject made an eye movement toward the stimulus. RESULTS: The 6 degrees stimulus produced larger measured visual field extent than the 1.5 degrees stimulus in 3.5-month olds (temporal field only) and in 7-month olds (nasal and temporal field), but not in adults. CONCLUSIONS: Using the testing conditions of the present study, increasing stimulus size beyond the largest used in a Goldmann perimeter (approximately 2 degrees) increases measured visual field extent in young infants, but not in adults. This may relate to differences in peripheral summation areas or to differences in attentional factors between infants and adults.