[The cost of hospitalizing patients with AIDS in Bordeaux].

The study deals with the infectious diseases department of the university hospital of Bordeaux where most of the AIDS patients in south western France are admitted. In 1986, the department counted 64 admissions (and readmissions) from 35 AIDS patients and 1376 admissions (and readmissions) from 707 other patients. Taking into account admissions of AIDS patients into other hospital departments, the average cost of a hospital day of an AIDS patient was estimated at 1815 French francs in 1986.

[Long-term results of a trial of short-term chemotherapy. French study 6.9.12].

The relapse rate after short course chemotherapy is usually assessed by cases that are available for analysis, with a delay which rarely exceeds 3 years from the time of instituting therapy. This level may be disputed if too many are lost to follow up or non-compliers appearing late. To understand the true failure rate we strove to trace every patient in a trial carried out between 1969 and 1973, consisting of three groups of patients treated with the same chemotherapy: Isoniazid (450 mg/day), Rifampicin (600 mg/day) given every day but for differing durations: 6 months (Group A), 9 months (Group B), 12 months (Group C), with either daily Ethambutol or Streptomycin in addition for the first three months.

[Scale of normal values of peak expiratory output in healthy children and adolescents based on flow-volume curves (author's transl)].

The authors present scales of reference theoretical values for children and peak expiratory output (V 50 and V 25), as well as FEV1 and vital capacity obtained by flow-volume curves. After a description of the equipment (adaptable to on-the-spot epidemiological studies), the reference population (537 children, male and female, 6-16 years old), and the method of curve applications, the statistical basis for devising the scale was analyzed. Under study were the following topics: assuming an exponential regression model, advantages of the consideration of two reference parameters (age and size), or of one (size), which was the solution adopted finally to construct the scale.

[Effect of antimicrobial vaccination in the prevention of infectious episodes of chronic bronchial diseases (bacterial suspension, ribosomal extracts, placebo)].

The aim of this work was to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of antimicrobial vaccination in patients suffering from chronic bronchopathies. We proposed this vaccination to 40 patients divided into two groups: one received either the bacterial suspension or ribosomal extracts; the other was given a Placebo. The effectiveness of the vaccination in reflected mainly by the statistically significant decrease in the number of infectious outbreaks and in antibiotic consumption in winter as compared to a control group receiving only a Placebo.

[Epidemiological study of asthma in school age children at Bordeaux. Investigation by questionnaires and functional respiratory examinations by flow-volume curves (author's transl)].

The first results of a survey involving 1950 children from 6 to 12 years old living in Bordeaux are presented here. For 280 of them, who had attacks of asthma or showed other closely related signs, a questionnaire was filled out by the parents. On this basis, the main features of the disease, as well as the ORL bronchial and allergological course, were specified for a representative epidemiological population (with a distinction between actual asthma and disappeared asthma, distribution according to sex and age of the first attack).

[Medico-social consequences of asthma in children (author's transl)].

The author proposes a study of the medico-social consequences of asthma. Having shown the impossibility of a monolithic conception of asthma, he shows how much it is conditioned in the child by his social and family surroundings. Different levels of consequences are considered: restraints linked to the therapeutics of a chronic disease, effect on physical activity and leisure, importance of the repercussions on school life (absenteeism and slowness).

[Functional approach to asthma (author's transl)].

The different pulmonary function tests which enable the diagnosis of asthma and its functional criterium, reversible bronchial obstruction, are reviewed. It is our opinion that in epidemiology where the diagnosis should be made "on the spot" in a simple, rapid and non-aggressive manner, the most appropriate tests are the following: the FEV1 or other forced expiration parameters, to which could be added the measurements of closing volume, the slope of phase III, and/or flow-volume curves using two gas mixtures. The modifiers of bronchomotricity could confirm the reversible nature of the bronchial obstruction.

[Mediastinopulmonary sarcoidosis; the indications for corticosteroid therapy].

The authors, following prolonged observation for from one to ten years, on average 5 years, of 60 cases of thoracic sarcoidosis, of lymph node or miliary type, propose a therapeutic attitude which, although not new, is frankly oriented towards therapeutic abstinence in the lymph node forms, and very restricted indications for hormone therapy in the miliary forms. In this respect, they agree with many authors, in particular English language authors, who consider that corticosteroid therapy is only justified in the acute forms, with a disturbance of general health and characteristic functional involvement. Such an attitude may appear shocking to those who tend to prescribe corticosteroids for their immediate efficacy, but in the long-term, it appears justified.

Dimethyl sulfoxide therapy in nonmongoloid infantile oligophrenia.

We are herein submitting the results obtained with a group of 13 nonmongoloid, oligophrenic children after 180 days' treatment with DAT, and we have compared the results with those of a control group that received only conventional treatment. The children were examined before and after the treatment by means of the Binet-Simon tests, which have been standardized by Kuhlmann, and the Wise and Terman Merrill test. The control of organic lesion was determined by the Bender test.