Do children with primary nocturnal enuresis have a retarded bone age? A cross‐sectional study

OBJECTIVE: Nocturnal enuresis is a common pediatric problem, the etiology of which is unclear. In recent years, various studies have been published stating that children with nocturnal enuresis exhibit growth and skeletal maturation retardation. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we included 27 patients (16 boys, 11 girls) between the ages of 6 and 14 years who had presented with primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE) complaints. We included in the evaluation 19 healthy subjects (12 boys, 7 girls), who were the siblings of the children with PNE, as the control group. RESULTS: The patients in both groups were similar in chronological age, bone age, height and weight, with no significant difference between groups (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: The two groups in our study consisted of the same genetic background. Thus, our results were found to be different from the previous studies. We have concluded that there is no direct relationship between enuresis nocturnal and skeletal maturation.     

Variet?ten des Brustbeines

Ohne ZusammenfassungMit 12 Abbildungen im Text und 6 Figuren auf den Tafeln 3/6.     

Paramecium calcium channels are blocked by a family of calmodulin antagonists.

Although the voltage-sensitive Ca channel present in Paramecium has been subjected to detailed physiological and genetic analysis, no organic ligands have been described that block this channel with high affinity and that ultimately can be used to identify channel components. Based on a previous observation that the naphthalene sulfonamide calmodulin antagonist W-7 can block Paramecium Ca channels at high concentration, we have synthesized analogs of W-7 that block these channels at concentrations of less than 1 microM. The effectiveness of these compounds was tested both by a sensitive behavioral assay and on Ca channels that had been incorporated into planar lipid bilayers. Despite the fact that these compounds are effective Paramecium calmodulin antagonists, two independent lines of evidence suggest that W-7 and its analogs block the Ca channel by a mechanism that is independent of their action on calmodulin. In addition, the sensitivity to W-7 or dihydropyridines of Ca channels present in a number of eukaryotic phyla has been used to identify similarities in Ca channels from widely diverse organisms. It appears that the pharmacological specificity provides a means to group Ca channels.