A persisting secular trend for body measurements in Dutch children. The Oosterwolde 11 study

To investigate whether the secular trend for growth in Dutch children still exists, the Oosterwolde I study of 1980 was repeated in 1989. A persisting secular trend was visible for height while the z scores of body proportions show no change during the past 10 years, which suggests that there is no change in the timing of puberty.     

A retrospective study to determine the risk of red cell alloimmunization and transfusion during pregnancy

A retrospective review of post-delivery antibody records was performed at a teaching hospital and a community hospital to determine the frequency of new red cell alloantibody production and transfusion during pregnancy. If alloantibody was undetected at delivery, it was assumed that alloimmunization had not occurred. When antibody was detected, a chart review was performed to determine if the antibody was present at the beginning of the pregnancy or was newly produced during the pregnancy. A total of 17,568 pregnancies were reviewed. Antibody was detected at delivery in 948 (5.4%) cases, of which 89.5 percent (848/948) involved passive anti-D or clinically insignificant antibodies. The remaining 100 pregnancies involved clinically significant IgG antibodies. In 58 pregnancies, the antibody was detected in the first trimester, and in 42, new antibody production occurred during the pregnancy. Thus, the prevalence of new antibody production during pregnancy was 0.24 percent (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.17-0.32). Transfusion records indicated that the prevalence of transfusions during pregnancy was 0.09 percent (95% CI, 0.04-0.14). None of the women with new alloantibody formation during their pregnancies required transfusion; hence, new alloantibody production and the need for transfusion appear to be independent events. The probability of these events occurring together was 2.1 × 10(-6), or 1 in 500,000 deliveries.     

Gastric myoelectrical and motor abnormalities in children and adolescents with functional recurrent abdominal pain

Background and Aims: Recurrent abdominal pain is common among children and adolescents. The majority of the affected patients have no apparent cause for their symptoms. This study evaluated gastric myoelectrical activity and motility abnormalities in children and adolescents with functional recurrent abdominal pain. Methods: Forty‐two children with functional recurrent abdominal pain [19 (45.2%) males, mean 8 years, SD 3 years, 19 functional abdominal pain, 9 irritable bowel syndrome, 9 functional dyspepsia, 1 abdominal migraine, 1 aerophagia and 3 non‐specific abdominal pain according to Rome III criteria] and 20 healthy children [10 (50%) males, mean 9 years, SD 2.7 years] from the same geographical area underwent electrogastrography (EGG), and ultrasonographic assessment of gastric emptying rate and antral motility. Results: Average gastric emptying rate, amplitude of antral contractions and antral motility index were lower in patients (46.5%, 74.3% and 6.5 respectively) compared to controls (66.17%, 89% and 8.3 respectively) (P < 0.001). Gastric emptying rate had a negative correlation with scores obtained for severity of symptoms (r = ?0.63, P < 0.0001). Postprandial dominant frequency instability co‐efficient (post‐DFIC) was higher in patients than in controls (27.83% vs 18.3%, P = 0.0087), and correlated with the symptom score (r = 0.26, P = 0.045). Conclusions: Gastric emptying and antral motility were significantly impaired in patients, indicating a possible role for gastric motility disturbances in the pathogenesis of childhood functional recurrent abdominal pain. Further studies, including therapeutic trials, are needed to confirm this association and for recommendation of prokinetic drugs in its management.     

Test–retest repeatability of [18F]Flortaucipir PET in Alzheimer’s disease and cognitively normal individuals

The aim of this study was to investigate the test–retest (TRT) repeatability of various parametric quantification methods for [¹⁸F]Flortaucipir positron emission tomography (PET). We included eight subjects with dementia or mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease and six cognitively normal subjects. All underwent two 130-min dynamic [¹⁸F]Flortaucipir PET scans within 3 ± 1 weeks. Data were analyzed using reference region models receptor parametric mapping (RPM), simplified reference tissue method 2 (SRTM2) and reference logan (RLogan), as well as standardized uptake value ratios (SUVr, time intervals 40–60, 80–100 and 110–130 min post-injection) with cerebellar gray matter as reference region. We obtained distribution volume ratio or SUVr, first for all brain regions and then in three tau-specific regions-of-interest (ROIs). TRT repeatability (%) was defined as |retest–test|/(average (test + retest)) × 100. For all methods and across ROIs, TRT repeatability ranged from (median (IQR)) 0.84% (0.68–2.15) to 6.84% (2.99–11.50). TRT repeatability was good for all reference methods used, although semi-quantitative models (i.e. SUVr) performed marginally worse than quantitative models, for instance TRT repeatability of RPM: 1.98% (0.78–3.58) vs. SUVr_80–100: 3.05% (1.28–5.52), p < 0.001. Furthermore, for SUVr_80–100 and SUVr_110–130, with higher average SUVr, more variation was observed. In conclusion, while TRT repeatability was good for all models used, quantitative methods performed slightly better than semi-quantitative methods.