Impaired motor function (clumsiness) in 5 year old children: correlation with neonatal ultrasound scans.

All 155 surviving children from a cohort of 200 very low birthweight infants originally studied in 1984-5 were traced. These infants had careful sequential ultrasound examinations in the neonatal period. The children were examined again at entry into school at 5 years of age.

Further standardization of the agglutinin-absorption test in the serology of leptospires.

Four factors, suspected of influencing the final results of agglutinin-absorption tests used in the diagnosis and classification of leptospires, were investigated in comparative studies: (1) the time required for adequate absorption, (2) the quantitative relationship between antibody titres and amounts of antigen needed for absorption, (3) the possible effect of the Danysz phenomenon, and (4) the absorptive potency of live and formol-treated antigen.It was found that a 90-minute absorption time was adequate and that with increasing amounts of antigen, titres were continuously reduced, indicating a certain degree of non-specific absorption. The Danysz phenomenon was found to occur in leptospiral serology and the addition of antigen to serum in 3 equal parts at 10-minute intervals is recommended.

Failure of bacterial endotoxin to produce the generalized Shwartzman reaction in the Syrian hamster.

The ability of bacterial endotoxin to produce the generalized Shwartzman reaction (GSR) in pregnant and nonpregnant hamsters was investigated. Endotoxins prepared from Escherichia coli O127:B8, Salmonella enteritidis, and S. typhosa 0-901 did not produce the GSR in nonpregnant hamsters.