Helvetica paediatrica acta. Supplementum最新文献

Physical growth from birth to adulthood in healthy Swiss children born 1954-1956 is described. The data are based on the First Zurich Longitudinal Study in which 137 individuals of each sex have been followed from birth to adulthood between 1954 and 1976. Distance standards of 20 anthropometric measurements such as weight, height and head circumference are presented as mean values and standard deviations or as median values (for weight and skinfold thickness) with smoothed empirical centiles. Velocity standards are provided for seven anthropometric parameters. The following standard growth charts for clinical use are presented: weight, length/height and head circumference in the perinatal period, in the age range of 0-48 months and in the age range of 1-18 years (including some data on puberty), as well as weight for length/height and height velocity (cross-sectional and peak height centered). Comparison of the growth standards with those of previous Swiss studies and of recent foreign studies revealed only minor differences. Various aspects relevant for the clinical use of growth standards, such as measurement error or secular trend, are discussed.

In this supplementum a prospective study on the activity of the pediatrician in private practice is reported. The study was carried out with the collaboration of 39 pediatricians in the area of Zurich between 1980 and 1982.

This study is a review of 70 cases of congenital toxoplasmosis; all of the patients were dead between birth and the age of nine. The anatomo-pathological examination of 9 personal cases (6 acute, 1 subacute, 2 chronic) is presented and compared with that of 61 cases from the literature. After a parasitological survey concerning the infectious agent, the author summarizes the macroscopic and the microscopic lesions of his personal cases. Those data are subsequently confronted to those referred to in the literature. The author makes an attempt to entangle the terminological confusion that exists between the different terms: cyst, pseudocyst, microglial nodule and granuloma. The frequency, the localization and the mechanisms of the main alterations - granuloma, necrosis, calcification, hydrocephaly - are studied as well as the vulnerability factors and the resistance of the subjects. The presence in 8 of the 9 chronic cases of calcified scar lesions in the inferior portion of the external wall of the lateral ventricles suggests a particular vulnerability of the spongioblasts in that area. In the acute cases the extensive necroses in the cerebral hemispheres seem to result from immunological reactions in an immature organism rather than from vascular thromboses that appear to be more a secondary phenomenon.

Recent clinical experience with twelve cases of rotavirus gastroenteritis has enabled us to review this subject. After a historical introduction and a review of the literature, two patients are described in detail. The clinical and laboratory data of all the twelve children are reviewed and compared with cases reported in the literature. These observations suggest several conclusions: The disease is very contagious. The patients present with diarrhoea lasting a few days, vomiting and fever. They recover without complications usually within 6 days. All our cases occurred in winter. The blood count revealed a neutrophilia at the onset of the illness followed after 4-5 days by a lymphocytosis with 1-3% plasmocytes. The finding of increased serum transaminase levels indicates a hepatic involvement. These levels returned to normal values only several weeks after the clinical improvement. Treatment consisting only of rehydration and a usual diet for acute gastroenteritis was successful in all the patients.