Outcome of 100 randomly positioned children of very low birthweight at 2 years

Prematurely born children often show a tendency to adopt extensor motor patterns during the first years of life. These children and especially those children of very low birthweight are considered to be at high risk for abnormal development. Positioning in an ordinary manner or in a more flexed position imposed at random during the neonatal period until discharge from hospital did not have a statistically significant influence on the development of these children at 24 months after term. Analysis of the optimality score of the 100 randomly selected children, born consecutively at the University Women's Hospital, Bern, showed a significant influence of prenatal optimality and congenital malformations on their later outcome.     

Eosinophil chemotactic factor (ECF) in blister fluid of dermatological diseases

The occurrence of low molecular weight (< 500 dalton) eosinophil chemotactic factor (ECF) was studied in the blister fluid of patients with various dermatological diseases by an in vitro chemotaxis method. After chromatographic separation of the test substance on a small Sephadex G 25 column, ECF was demonstrated in blisters of five patients with bullous pemphigoid, in three patients with systemic drug reactions and in one patient with blisters after contact with primula. ECF was not found in blisters of patients with epidermolysis bullosa and herpes gestationis or in DNCB-induced blisters. Fluid obtained from suction blisters was negative in normal controls and on unaffected skin of patients with atopic eczema, but contained ECF in eczematous areas. The demonstration of ECF in tissue fluid suggests that this factor plays a role in the local accumulation of eosinophils at sites of certain inflammatory reactions.