[A city for the elderly: research into new technologies in Singapore].

A city-state located at the heart of South East Asia, Singapore is now facing an accelerated ageing of the population, resulting from a very good health care coverage and a very low birth rate. A team of researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) is exploring the use of new technologies to improve the quality of life of elderly people in towns and cities and anticipate their health risks.

Intrafamilial variability of ZRS-associated syndrome: characterization of a mosaic ZRS mutation by pyrosequencing.

During limb development, the spatio-temporal expression of sonic hedgehog (SHH) is driven by the Zone of polarizing activity Regulatory Sequence (ZRS), located 1 megabase upstream from SHH. Gain-of-function mutations of this enhancer, which cause ectopic expression of SHH, are known to be responsible for congenital limb malformations with variable expressivity, ranging from preaxial polydactyly or triphalangeal thumbs to polysyndactyly, which may also be associated with mesomelic deficiency. In this report, we describe a patient affected with mirror-image polydactyly of the four extremities and bilateral tibial deficiency.

[Intrarectal administration of quinine: an early treatment for severe malaria in children?].

Delay for treatment of severe malaria is the cause of an important childhood mortality in Africa especially in rural zone when health facilities and accessibility are scarce. Intrarectal treatment is of particular interest in children as a non aggressive, painless and easy treatment. It can be used as early treatment and could decrease the lethality of severe malaria.

Quinine disposition in globally malnourished children with cerebral malaria.

Background: Both malnutrition and malaria affect drug disposition and are frequent among children in the tropics. We assessed their respective influence on quinine distribution.

Methods: Forty children were divided into 4 groups: children with normal nutritional status without (group 1) or with (group 2) cerebral malaria, and malnourished children without (group 3) or with (group 4) cerebral malaria.

An open randomized clinical study of intrarectal versus infused Quinimax for the treatment of childhood cerebral malaria in Niger.

The intrarectal route has been shown to be an alternative to parenteral therapy for the treatment of acute uncomplicated malaria. We conducted an open randomized clinical study of intrarectal Quinimax (a Cinchona alkaloids association) (20 mg/kg, then 15 mg/kg every 8 h) vs. intravenous Quinimax (8 mg/ kg infused over 4 h every 8 h) for 2 d in 76 children (39 in the intrarectal and 37 in the infusion groups) with cerebral falciparum malaria in Niger.