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.     

Effects of systemic clonidine on auditory event-related potentials in squirrel monkeys

Event-related potential (ERP), electroencephalographic (BEG), and behavioral data were collected from squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) in a 90−10 auditory oddball paradigm. Background or target tones were presented once every 2 s, and responses to the targets were rewarded. ERPs were recorded from epidural electrodes following systemic administration of clonidine (0.1 mg/kg) or a saline placebo. EEG power spectra and behavioral performance were assessed simultaneously as indices of behavioral state. Clonidine significantly decreased the area and increased the latency of a P300-like potential. The amplitudes and areas of the earlier P1, N1, and P2 components and a later slow wave-like potential were not reduced, nor were their latencies altered. Clonidine produced increased EEG power in the alpha range (7.5–12 Hz) and decreased power in the upper beta range (20–40 Hz) but did not affect performance in the oddball task. Because two major effects of clonidine are to substantially reduce activity in the noradrenergic nucleus locus coeruleus (LC) and to reduce norepinephrine (NE) release from axons, the present results support the hypothesis that the LC and its efferent projection system are important in modulating the activity of P300-like potentials.     

Serum ionic fluoride levels in haemodialysis and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients

High serum fluoride (F-) in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is associated with risk of renal osteodystrophy and other bone changes. This study was done to determine F- in normal healthy controls and patients with ESRD on haemodialysis (HD) or peritoneal dialysis (PD). Seventeen healthy controls (12 males, 5 females) and 39 ESRD patients on dialysis (17 males, 22 females) were recruited in the study in a community with 47.4 +/- 3.28 microM/l (range 44-51 microM/l) of F- content in drinking water. Control subjects showed a mean serum F- concentration of 1.08 +/- 0.350 microM/l. Males in control group showed slightly higher F- levels (1.15 +/- 0.334, range 0.55-1.9 microM/l) than females (0.92 +/- 0.370, range 0.6-1.5 microM/l). Mean serum F- concentration did not correlate significantly with age and sex among control subjects, whereas such correlation was observed in patients with ESRD on dialysis. Mean serum F- concentration was significantly higher in patients on dialysis (2.67 +/- 1.09, range 0.8-5.2 microM/l) than normal controls. When grouped according to sex, the mean serum F- concentration in males (3.05 +/- 1.04, range 1.8-5.2 microM/l) was significantly higher than females (2.38 +/- 1.08, range 0.8-5.2 microM/l). When patients were grouped according to age, it was observed that F- concentration was significantly higher in patients with age groups 21-70 (2.86 +/- 1.05) than those with age group 13-20 years (1.42 +/- 0.531). Thus F- concentration correlated with age and sex, being higher in males and above 20 years. Despite appreciable clearance of F- (39-90%) across the peritoneum, patients on CAPD showed higher serum F- concentration than those on HD (3.1 +/- 1.97 vs 2.5 +/- 1.137 microM/l). Of the total 39 patients on dialysis 39% had their serum F- concentration above 3.0 microM/l, posing the risk of renal osteodystrophy.      

Rotative agitation RIA: A high sensitivity technique for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) determinations

With the objective of finding a simpler and more sensitive method than conventional radioimmunoassay testing to detect HBsAg, we have modified the sample volume and first incubation procedure of the Ausria IIA method. There was an up to 9-fold increase in sensitivity without loss of specificity, in different assays, when the first incubation was carried out with a serum sample of 1 ml that was rotatively agitated for 22 h at room temperature. Additionally, 71 samples from which conventional testing had isolated hepatitis B core antibodies were tested with the modified rotative agitation technique and 9 of these specimens (12.67%) were positive for HBsAg. Routine employment of the rotative agitation radioimmunoassay technique to screen HBsAg by blood banks, to detect potential infectious donations that escape conventional testing, could be an effective as well as low-cost procedure to prevent post-transfusion hepatitis B.     

Prospective epidemiological study of invasiveHaemophilus influenzae disease in adults

The incidence and characteristics of invasiveHaemophilus influenzae disease were studied in 43 adult patients admitted to the acute care hospitals in El Vallés County (Barcelona, Spain) between January 1987 and June 1992. The annual incidence ofHaemophilus influenzae disease was 1.2 per 100,000 inhabitants. Pneumonia occurred in 24 patients, meningitis in five, intraabdominal infections in three, obstetric infections in two, epiglottitis in two and cellulitis in one. In six patients the source of infection was unknown. Ten (23 %) of the infections were hospital acquired. Underlying conditions were diagnosed in 30 (70 %) patients. NontypeableHaemophilus influenzae strains predominated in all adult age groups. Sixty-one percent of type b and 34 % of nontypeable strains were ampicillin resistant (p=0.08). Multiple antibiotic resistance was also high among type b (53 %) and nontypeable (18 %) strains. The mortality rate was significantly higher in patients with pneumonia, bactaeremia from an unidentified focus or shock at presentation.     

Multicoil Dixon chemical species separation with an iterative least-squares estimation method.

This work describes a new approach to multipoint Dixon fat-water separation that is amenable to pulse sequences that require short echo time (TE) increments, such as steady-state free precession (SSFP) and fast spin-echo (FSE) imaging. Using an iterative linear least-squares method that decomposes water and fat images from source images acquired at short TE increments, images with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and uniform separation of water and fat are obtained. This algorithm extends to multicoil reconstruction with minimal additional complexity. Examples of single- and multicoil fat-water decompositions are shown from source images acquired at both 1.5T and 3.0T. Examples in the knee, ankle, pelvis, abdomen, and heart are shown, using FSE, SSFP, and spoiled gradient-echo (SPGR) pulse sequences. The algorithm was applied to systems with multiple chemical species, and an example of water-fat-silicone separation is shown. An analysis of the noise performance of this method is described, and methods to improve noise performance through multicoil acquisition and field map smoothing are discussed.     

Accurate counting of low numbers of leukocytes. Use of flow cytometry and a manual low-count chamber.

The leukocyte depletion that current filters make possible in erythrocyte and platelet preparations can result in leukocyte concentrations too low to be counted accurately by automated and standard manual methods. A recently described method for counting low numbers (1 to 10 x 10(6) per L) of leukocytes by flow cytometry and the use of a manual low-count chamber on 25 venous samples serially diluted to 1:1,000 were evaluated. The results show that both methods for counting leukocytes can reliably determine counts of 1 to 10 x 10(6) leukocytes/liter (a three-order of magnitude reduction from venous blood) in terms of order of magnitude but lack accuracy for specific measurement. The flow cytometric method is more expensive, less readily available, and suffers from greater sample variability. Use of a low-count chamber is a superior technique to evaluate and maintain quality control of methods for leukocyte depletion, resulting in a final leukocyte concentration of 1 to 10 cells per microliter.