Respiratory syncytial virus infections in neonates and infants

Respiratory syncytial virus is one of the major causes of respiratory tract infections during infancy with high rates of hospitalization and mortality during the first years of life. It is the most common cause of acute bronchiolitis and viral pneumonia in children below two years of age and second the most common cause of postneonatal infant mortality all around the world following malaria. In addition, the virus has been causally linked to recurrent wheezing and associated with pediatric asthma. The respiratory syncytial virus infections tend to be severe in high risk patients such as patients below six months of age, with prematurity, congenital heart diseases, neuromuscular diseases and immune deficiencies. No specific treatment is available for respiratory syncytial virus infections to date. Severe cases require supportive therapy, mainly oxygen supplementation and hydration, and less frequently, ventilatory support. Because there is no vaccine to prevent respiratory syncytial virus infections or clinically effective treatment to administer to children with respiratory syncytial virus infection, immunoprophylaxis with palivizumab is currently the only method for reducing morbidity associated with severe respiratory syncytial virus in high-risk infants

Respiratory syncytial virüs infections in neonates and infants

Respiratory syncytial virus is one of the major causes of respiratory tract infections during infancy with high rates of hospitalization and mortality during the first years of life. It is the most common cause of acute bronchiolitis and viral pneumonia in children below two years of age and second the most common cause of postneonatal infant mortality all around the world following malaria. In addition, the virus has been causally linked to recurrent wheezing and associated with pediatric asthma. The respiratory syncytial virus infections tend to be severe in high risk patients such as patients below six months of age, with prematurity, congenital heart diseases, neuromuscular diseases and immune deficiencies. No specific treatment is available for respiratory syncytial virus infections to date. Severe cases require supportive therapy, mainly oxygen supplementation and hydration, and less frequently, ventilatory support. Because there is no vaccine to prevent respiratory syncytial virus infections or clinically effective treatment to administer to children with respiratory syncytial virus infection, immunoprophylaxis with palivizumab is currently the only method for reducing morbidity associated with severe respiratory syncytial virus in high-risk infants

Nephrocalcinosis as a complication of subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn

Subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn is an uncommon disorder affecting the adipose tissue of term infants. It is usually known as a transient, benign and self-limited disease, characterized by painful skin lesions beginning within the first week of life. The prognosis of the disease is generally good, but it may be complicated by potentially life-threatening metabolic alterations, including hypercalcemia, thrombocytopenia, hypoglycemia, and hypertriglyceridemia. Hypercalcemia is the most serious complication of subcutaneous fat necrosis because of its effects on the renal and cardiovascular systems. We thereby present a case of subcutaneous fat necrosis with all these metabolic alterations, which was also complicated by nephrocalcinosis as a non-transient and serious complication

Sleep disturbances and serum vitamin D levels in children with autism spectrum disorder

Sleep problems are among the most prevalent comorbidities experienced by children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). There is a clinical and physiological basis for a link between 25(OH) D levels and sleep disorders. In this study we aimed to investigate the frequency of sleep disorders in ASD patients and its association with 25(OH) D levels, and whether or not these frequencies changed after 25(OH) D treatment. This prospective study included 60 consecutive patients diagnosed with ASD and matched healthy controls between the ages of 4 and 10. Patients then underwent 25(OH) D replacement therapy according to their deficiency levels. Pre- and post-therapy values were compared. Sleep disturbance was detected in 78.3% of ASD patients (n = 60) and 33.3% of the control group (n = 60). When we compared the pretreatment scores of sleep disturbance between ASD and control groups (n = 60), there were significant differences in bedtime resistance, sleep anxiety, parasomnias, daytime sleepiness, sleep duration, sleep-onset delay, night wakings subscales, and total scale score (p 0.05). In ASD patients, there was a significant negative correlation between serum 25(OH) D levels and the night wakings subscale (r = -0.301, p = 0.019). In control patients, there was a significant negative correlation between serum 25(OH) D levels and daytime sleepiness subscales (r = -0.269, p = 0.038). The results indicate that it may be suitable to use 25(OH) D replacement therapy in ASD patients and healthy individuals with sleep disturbances

Duration and dispersion of the P wave after the Senning operation

We studied the duration and dispersion of the P wave in patients after a Senning operation, assessing its value in detecting the risk of atrial tachycardias

Thiamine-responsive megaloblastic anemia: Early diagnosis may be effective in preventing deafness

Thiamine-responsive megaloblastic anemia syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by diabetes mellitus, megaloblastic anemia and sensorineural hearing loss. Mutations in the SLC19A2 gene, encoding a high-affinity thiamine transporter protein, THTR-1, are responsible for the clinical features associated with thiamine-responsive megaloblastic anemia syndrome in which treatment with pharmacological doses of thiamine correct the megaloblastic anemia and diabetes mellitus. The anemia can recur when thiamine is withdrawn. Thiamine may be effective in preventing deafness if started before two months. Our patient was found homozygous for a mutation, 242insA, in the nucleic acid sequence of exon B, with insertion of an adenine introducing a stop codon at codon 52 in the high-affinity thiamine transporter gene, SLC19A2, on chromosome 1q23.3

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN GENETIC POLYMORPHISM IN DNA REPAIR GENES AND RISK OF B-CELL LYMPHOMA

Objectives: The authors evaluated the possible effect of DNA repair genes, XPD (Xeroderma pigmentosum group D) codon (312 and 751) and XRCC1 (X-ray repair cross-complementing group 1) codon (194 and 399) SNPs (single-nucleotide polymorphisms) on the risk of childhood B-cell lymphoma. Methods: The polymorphisms were analyzed in 33 patients with BL cases and in 52 healthy, age-matched controls using PCR-RFLP method. Results: The authors observed no association between variation in the XPD codon Asp312Asn, Lys751Gln, and XRCC1 codon Arg399Gln polymorphisms and B-cell lymphoma for any parameter. In contrast, tryptophan allele frequency in control and patient groups was 0.10 and 0.03 respectively (p = .04). The frequency of XRCC1 194Arg/Trp genotype in B-cell lymphoma was significantly lower than that in controls (p = .005). No significant relationship was found between genotypes and stage, lactate dehydrogenase, or bone marrow involvement. Conclusions: XRCC1 194Trp allele may be associated with a protective effect against development of childhood B-cell lymphoma. However, these results were based on a small number of case and further studies should be done

Pertussis antibody levels in infants and their mothers receiving combined tetanus-diphtheria toxoid and acellular pertussis vaccine during pregnancy in Turkey

Objective: Pertussis is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in infants under two months of age and these high risk babies are dependent on maternally derived antibodies until completion of their first immunization series. This study aimed to evaluate the vaccine response of late preterm and term new-borns as well as their mothers who underwent combined tetanus-diphtheria toxoid and acellular pertus-sis (Tdap) vaccination during pregnancy