Attitudes and awareness in autonomous decision on medical treatment or inclusion in clinical trials amongst Slovenian adolescents: an online survey.

Background: In Europe and elsewhere in the world, activities are taking place to improve the awareness of children and adolescents (hereinafter: adolescents) regarding their rights and obligations in autonomous decision-making about their own medical treatment and participation in clinical research.

Methods: The cross-sectional survey of adolescents was carried out using an anonymous online questionnaire. We obtained consent from the Commission of the Republic of Slovenia for Medical Ethics.

Long-range correlations in rectal temperature fluctuations of healthy infants during maturation.

Background: Control of breathing, heart rate, and body temperature are interdependent in infants, where instabilities in thermoregulation can contribute to apneas or even life-threatening events. Identifying abnormalities in thermoregulation is particularly important in the first 6 months of life, where autonomic regulation undergoes critical development. Fluctuations in body temperature have been shown to be sensitive to maturational stage as well as system failure in critically ill patients.

Maternal atopic disease modifies effects of prenatal risk factors on exhaled nitric oxide in infants.

In a prospective healthy birth cohort, we determined whether levels of exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) in healthy unselected infants at the age of 1 month were associated with maternal atopic disease and prenatal and early postnatal environmental exposures. Tidal eNO was measured in 98 healthy, unsedated infants (35 from mothers with atopy) (mean age +/- SD, 36.0 +/- 6.

Measurement of lung volume and ventilation distribution with an ultrasonic flow meter in healthy infants.

Small airway disease in infants is characterised by abnormal lung volume and uneven ventilation distribution. An inert tracer gas washin/washout technique using a pulsed ultrasonic flow meter is presented to measure functional residual capacity (FRC) and ventilation distribution in spontaneously breathing and unsedated infants. With a pulsed ultrasound sent through the main stream of the flow meter, flow, volume and MM of the breathing gas can be calculated.

Correlation properties of tidal volume and end-tidal O2 and CO2 concentrations in healthy infants.

We investigated whether breath-to-breath fluctuations in tidal volume (VT) and end-tidal O2 and CO2 exhibit long-range correlations and whether parameters describing the correlations can be used as noninvasive descriptors of control of breathing. We measured VT and end-tidal O2 and CO2 over n = 352 +/- 104 breaths in 26 term, healthy, unsedated infants (mean age +/- SD: 36 +/- 6 days) and calculated the detrended fluctuation function [F(n)]. The F(n) of the breath-to-breath time series of VT, O2, and CO2 revealed a linear increase with a breath number on log-log plots with a slope that was significantly different from 0.

Evaluation of the interrupter technique in healthy, unsedated infants.

The interrupter technique may be used to monitor respiratory resistance and does not require active patient cooperation, but has yet to be applied in unsedated, spontaneously breathing infants. The aim of this study was to determine if the interrupter technique is feasible in spontaneously breathing infants and to investigate the influence of facemask types and analysis techniques on the interrupter resistance (Rint). Rint was measured in 14 healthy, unsedated, sleeping infants (aged 38.

Comparative study of growth in asthmatic children and other children with chronic disease to a control group.

This study analysed the pathological factors significant for causing retardation of growth in different kinds of chronic diseases: asthma and other pulmonary chronic illness, rheumatic disease, diffuse collagen diseases, congenital heart disease and diabetes mellitus. All children were divided in two categories: the several and the mild cases depending on the degree of impairement of the main illness. All children have been analysed clinically, biochemically, immunologically, hormonally, and functionally; they were tested antropometrically, skeletal maturit stated, by means of special perforated cards for every illness with 49 dates and all data registered in specific "pass-port" for each child.