The language-reading relationship in normal and reading-disabled children

In this study, the word retrieval, phonological awareness, sentence completion, and narrative discourse processing skills of 93 reading-disabled and 93 normally achieving subjects from 8 to 14 years of age were compared. The subjects were matched for age, sex, and neighborhood. Results revealed that the two groups differed significantly on the time and accuracy of word retrieval, their ability to produce a syntactically appropriate structure in a sentence completion task, their retelling of stories that had been read to them, their answers to questions about the stories, and their inferences. Further analysis revealed that the variance in the younger reading-disabled children's reading comprehension scores was best accounted for by their performance on the sentence completion and word retrieval measures; the inferencing skills of the older reading-disabled children best accounted for the variance in their reading comprehension. By contrast, the younger normally achieving children's reading comprehension scores were best accounted for by their sentence completion, the proportion of the stories that they retold, and word retrieval scores. The proportion of stories retold and the phonological awareness score of the older normally achieving children best accounted for the variance in their reading scores. These findings suggest that the oral language skills of normally achieving and reading-disabled children may relate differently to their reading comprehension at different age levels.     

Glucocorticoids as an adjuvant treatment to intravenous antibiotics for cystic fibrosis pulmonary exacerbations: a UK Survey.

Oral glucocorticoids are widely used to treat exacerbations of asthma and COPD. A role for their use in treating exacerbations in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is not proven. We describe the current practice, amongst UK adult CF physicians, of oral glucocorticoid use as an adjuvant to intravenous (IV) antibiotic treatment during CF pulmonary exacerbation (P EX). The survey also examined whether physicians thought a randomised controlled trial (RCT) was necessary and their willingness to participate patients in such a trial. Eighty one percent of physicians replied. All of them used corticosteroids with P EX. Most physicians supported the need for a RCT and would be willing to enroll consenting patients in the trial. This survey highlighted the need for a RCT which would examine the role of adjuvant corticosteroids to IV antibiotics in CF P EX.     

Is pre‐operative radiotherapy necessary in T1‐T3 rectal cancer with TME?

OBJECTIVE: The indications for pre-operative radiotherapy in rectal cancer are still unclear with the exception of T4 tumours. The aim of this study was to assess local and overall recurrence in patients with T1-T3 rectal cancers undergoing total mesorectal excision (TME). METHODS: Prospective data was collected from 150 patients with rectal cancer treated in one surgical centre between July 1997 and July 2002. One hundred and twenty-nine primary resections were carried of which 102 were with curative intent. Seventy-nine patients with T1-T3 tumours were included in the analysis. Nine had local resections and 70 underwent TME; 19 of the 70 patients were node positive and 51 were node negative. RESULTS: At a median follow-up of 37 months (range 19-79 months) there were 3 (4.3%) isolated local recurrences. One node positive patient developed isolated local recurrence compared with 2 node negative patients. The node positive patient died from a myocardial infarction while the two node negative patients died as a consequence of local recurrence. Three (4.3%) of 70 patients developed systemic relapse all of whom were node positive. The cancer specific mortality rate over the same follow-up period was 3/19 for node positive patients and 2/51 for node negative patients. Of 9 patients who had local resections, none developed local recurrence or systemic relapse. CONCLUSIONS: With TME the rate of local recurrence in T1-T3 tumours is low. Our results do not support the use of pre-operative radiotherapy for these patients.