Peculiar features of childhood poisoning and in the maternal-fetal period [Problematiche specifiche connesse alle intossicazioni acute in ambito materno fetale ed infantile]

Acute toxic exposures in childhood are quite a frequent event m Paediatric Emergency Medicine. Despite that, there are few papers about clinical toxicology in children, at least in Italy. This paper is the first that takes into account both epidemiological aspects and clinical features of acute poisoning in children on a national basis. Collected data show the increased use of activated charcoal as a treatment and the use of the short stay observation unit as an appropriate answer to the real clinical situation, although some aspects are still controversial. It will be necessary to reconsider the whole matter widening the number of participating centres, so that the most controversial aspects may be clarified

[Peculiar features of childhood poisoning and in the maternal-fetal period].

Acute toxic exposures in childhood are quite a frequent event in Paediatric Emergency Medicine. Despite that, there are few papers about clinical toxicology in children, at least in Italy. This paper is the first that takes into account both epidemiological aspects and clinical features of acute poisoning in children on a national basis. Collected data show the increased use of activated charcoal as a treatment and the use of the short stay observation unit as an appropriate answer to the real clinical situation, although some aspects are still controversial. It will be necessary to reconsider the whole matter widening the number of participating centres, so that the most controversial aspects may be clarified

Semantic significance: a new measure of feature salience

According to the feature-based model of semantic memory, concepts are described by a set of semantic features that contribute, with different weights, to the meaning of a concept. Interestingly, this theoretical framework has introduced numerous dimensions to describe semantic features. Recently, we proposed a new parameter to measure the importance of a semantic feature for the conceptual representation-that is, semantic significance. Here, with speeded verification tasks, we tested the predictive value of our index and investigated the relative roles of conceptual and featural dimensions on the participants' performance. The results showed that semantic significance is a good predictor of participants' verification latencies and suggested that it efficiently captures the salience of a feature for the computation of the meaning of a given concept. Therefore, we suggest that semantic significance can be considered an effective index of the importance of a feature in a given conceptual representation. Moreover, we propose that it may have straightforward implications for feature-based models of semantic memory, as an important additional factor for understanding conceptual representation

ITALIAN REGISTER FOR HIV-1 INFECTION IN CHILDREN - REPORT UP TO 30-3-1990 (1422 CHILDREN ENROLLED)

The Italian Register for HIV-1 infection in children was instituted in 1985 by the Italian Association of Pediatrics. As of March 1990, 1422 children (1321 born to seropositive mothers, 99 infected by blood products and 2 whose personal history was not available) were enrolled in our multicentre study. The number of perinatally exposed children was higher in industrialized areas and has been increasing over the years. Intravenous drug use (66.4%), sexual contacts with infected partner (14.5%) or both (15.6%) were the main mother's risk factors, with increasing proportion of those infected by sexual contacts (up to 21% in 1989). The mother-to-offspring transmission rate was 19.9%, when assessed in first born children prospectively followed-up from birth who remained seropositive after 18 months of age. Efficiency of infection was higher in children born to symptomatic mothers, whereas it was unaffected by mode of delivery, gestational age or birthweight. The role of breast-feeding remains doubtful. The risk of infection was not increased at second pregnancy (33 siblings studied) and infection status was disconcordant only in 1/10 twin pairs. Perinatally exposed population consisted of 396 infants whose infection status was still indeterminate (P-0), 388 infected children (93 P-1), including 31 antibody-negative, viral marker-positive subjects, and 295 P-2) and 537 uninfected children. 82.6% of infected seropositive children developed HIV-related clinical manifestations at a median age of 4 months. 69 (23.4%) P-2 patients have died at a median age of 12 months. Decreased CD4 + lymphocyte counts and increased serum immunoglobulin levels in the first months of life were indexes of disease progression rather than of infection status. Specific secondary infections, neurologic disorders, growth failure, fever, anemia and hepatitis were significantly and independently correlated to a poor prognosis. 688 doses of diphteria-tetanus vaccine, 476 of inactivated polyomielitis and 327 of attenuated live polyomielitis vaccine were administered in infected infants with no recorded side effects. Among bloodborne HIV-1 infections (48 haemophilics, 41 beta-thalassemics and 10 occasionally transfused children), only anecdotal cases have been recorded after 1985, when specific preventive measures were adopted. Clinical evolution was worse in perinatally infected children when compared to that of those who acquired infection through administration of blood products. HIV-1 infection in childhood has become a main problem in Italy. Diffusion by blood products has been widely restrained, but the increasing number of perinatally infected children indicates that further specific efforts and strategies in the field of public health are needed