[Takayasu's disease: interest in methotrexate treatment].

Unlabelled: Takayasu's disease is a nonspecific aortic arteritis that affects mostly young women and sometimes children. Usual treatment consists of early and prolonged steroids. Some patients do not respond to this treatment, become steroid-dependent or suffer from side effects.

[Results of a protocol for etiologic diagnosis of pneumopathies on immunosuppressed children (author's transl)].

A protocol for etiologic diagnosis has been used on 40 immuno suppressed children with pulmonary infiltrate. The purpose of this protocol is to permit an early etiologic diagnosis, concomitant infections by several pathogen agents being frequently seen. An endobronchial brushing is first performed; the results being obtained between 24 to 48 hours.

[Acute mercury poisoning in children. Report on four cases (author's transl)].

The authors report four cases of acute mercury poisoning in children ranged from one week to twelve years of age. All were of favourable course and one of them is particularly well-documented with regard to mercury excretion. Case reports are followed by a clinical study of mercury intoxication with a review of literature about recent therapeutic advances.

Diagnosis of pneumocystis carinii pneumonia using an endobronchial brushing technique. A report on twenty-one cases in immunocompromised children.

By examining the endobronchial brushings from 65 infants and children with interstitial pneumonia--characterized by a severe hypoxia and diffuse lung infiltrates--we have detected the cysts of pneumocystis carinii in 17 of 21 subsequently confirmed cases. The rapid diagnosis and subsequent specific treatment have allowed the recovery of 18 of these children. The particular significance of this article is the youth of the patients, whose ages ranged from 4 months to 15 years.

[Neonatal hernias of the dome of the diaphragm. Why a gloomy prognosis?].

The prognosis is neonatal hernias of the dome of the diaphragm remains extremely gloomy. Associated malformations, prematurity or dysmaturity, cannot explain it. The surgeon is now faced with conditions diagnosed in the labour room, which he previously never saw (and which therefore did not figure in his statistics).

[Emergency treatment of inborn amino errors of amino acid metabolism detected in the neonatal period].

The indications and effects of exchange transfusion, peritoneal dialysis, osmotic diuresis and early feeding have been studied in 28 children with inborn errors of aminoacid metabolism presenting in the neonatal period. Exchange-transfusion has only a transitory and incomplete effect but it is simple and quick. Peritoneal dialysis has a remarkable and often life-saving effect because the blood levels of toxic metabolites are reduced very effectively in organic acidaemias.

[Serum creatine kinase isoenzyme as a reflection of neonatal cerebral distress (author's transl)].

The BB fraction of serum creatine kinase was estimated in 3 groups of newborn : 30 healthy newborn at term, 20 newborn ill but without cerebral distress, 17 newborn with acute perinatal or foetal distress. In the first two groups, BB fraction was negligeable or nil, in respectively 26 and 16 cases, and between 1 and 4% in 4 cases. In the third group, it was greater than 4% in 10 cases, nil in 6 and 4% in one.

[Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in chronically immunosuppressed patients. Apropos of 33 cases].

The availability of drugs that are active against Pneumocystis carinii has renewed interest in and underlined the difficulties of the early diagnosis pneumocystis pneumonia. A retrospective study of 33 cases was undertaken to define the optimal management. It is necessary to take into consideration the high mortality of the untreated condition and the risks of investigation and of treatment.

[Acute tuberculous meningitis in children. A report on 4 cases (author's transl)].

Four children were treated for acute tuberculous meningitis. One child died and 2 others were left with severe neurological sequellae. The diagnostic and clinical signs of tuberculous meningitis are reviewed.

[Principles underlying the use of antituberculosis medication in children (author's transl)].

The authors review the principles underlying antituberculosis therapy in children. Basing their comment on the published literature, they analyze the properties, pharmacology, toxicity, and side-effects of each medication, and define their dosage and modes of administration.

[Accidental ingestion of caustic in childhood (author's transl)].

Accidental ingestion of caustic in childhood is not frequent but severe. It result in oesophagal burns progressing to stricture formation. 18 children with severe oesophagal burns were admitted during the six past years in the Intensive Care Unit of "Hôpital des Enfants-Malades" in Paris.

[Results of bronchial scrapings in interstitial pulmonary diseases in immunodeficient children (author's transl)].

Endobronchial scraping was used in 53 immunodeficient children, aged 4 months to 15 years, and divided into three categories (37 receiving immunosuppression treatment, 8 with marasmus, and 8 with immunodeficiency), in order to determine the etiology of their interstitial pneumopathy. The examination was made under blind conditions in 21 cases using an intubation tube (under assisted ventilation), and with bronchoscopy under general anesthesia in the other 32 cases. Three scrapings were required for cytological, bacteriological, and virological and mycological examinations.

[Pulmonary hypertension and fetal circulation after severe congenital diaphragmatic hernia (author's transl)].

The authors present four new born with severe anoxemia after congenital diaphragmatic hernia repair. In three babies' hypoxemia was present from birth. Cardiac catheterization revealed pulmonary hypertension, resulting in a state of fetal circulation.

Myotonic dystrophy (Steinert's disease) in the neonate.

Radiological abnormalities of the ribs are reported in 5 newborn infants with myotonic dystrophy. In all 5, the ribs appeared very thin, in contrast to the normal appearance of the rest of the skeleton. This slenderness, which is important for diagnosis and prognosis, seems to be caused by hypotonia of the intercostal muscles.

[Bronchial brushing in severe lung diseases in children].

A distal bronchial brushing was performed in 25 children having severe lung diseases. The age of the patients ranged from 7 days to 14 years. Seventeen children were immuno-depressed.