Role of general practitioners in the care of disabled young adults.

Services for handicapped children end when these patients become young adults. In the Exeter Health Authority district 383 disabled young adults were interviewed about their unmet needs. Many wished for advice and counselling.

Inquiries into perinatal and early childhood deaths in a health care district.

A controlled study was made of stillbirths and deaths of children under 2 years of age born to families residing within the boundaries of the Exeter District Health Authority between 1 October 1980 and 30 September 1981. The study was concerned primarily with methodology and feasibility; the numbers involved were, with few exceptions, too small to permit significant conclusions to be drawn. In practice, the design and implementation of the project proved to be effective.

Umbilical cord serum creatine kinase BB in the diagnosis of brain damage in the newborn: problems in interpretation.

Raised values of creatine kinase BB (CKBB) in umbilical cord serum were obtained with some normal babies and those with fetal distress. Further investigation showed that the umbilical artery and vein tissue contain high CKBB activity, indicating that some cord blood samples may not solely reflect CKBB liberated from the brain.