Use of cyproheptadine in young children with feeding difficulties and poor growth in a pediatric feeding program.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of cyproheptadine (CY) use in infants and young children with poor growth treated at our multidisciplinary pediatric feeding program, and to describe changes in their weight and feeding behaviors.

Methods: A retrospective chart review of children treated with CY from January 2007 to July 2011 was performed. Demographic data, medical diagnosis, adverse effects of the drug, and changes in mealtime behaviors were extracted from the patients' medical records.

Family functioning and socioaffective competencies of children in the beginning of schooling.

The aim of this short-term longitudinal study, based on the system theory, was to test the association between different aspects of family functioning of preschoolers and their socioaffective competencies at the end of the first grade. The total sample included 278 children (137 boys and 141 girls) and their families. The analysis of variance results regarding the aspects of family cohesion and harmony showed that preschoolers from more cohesive families display more social skills, while those from more conflicting families display more externalizing behavior problems (aggression and irritability).

Real options reasoning in healthcare: an integrative approach and synopsis.

For the past 40 years, practitioners and researchers alike have been grappling with the natural shortcomings associated with the net present value approach to strategic decision making and capital budgeting. Work by scholars in option pricing theory has evolved into an alternative perspective on strategic capital investments, called "real options." Proponents of real options argue that this is a superior way of approaching decision making and capital budgeting, compared with other approaches, as it allows for greater strategic flexibility and encourages exploration, experimentation, and innovation.

Real option logic for healthcare entrepreneurial growth and survival.

Given the increasing market and technological uncertainty of capital investments, healthcare financial executives need to incorporate flexibility into their decision making. Traditional capital budgeting techniques do not take into consideration the need for flexibility, changes in the environment, or actions by management. In response, practitioners from various industries have adopted a new way of looking at capital investments: real options.

[Screening for colorectal neoplasms: comparison of Hemdetect and Haemoccult].

Comparison of a 3-hole-version (HEMDETECT) with the standard 2-hole HAEMOCCULT guajac-test for fecal occult blood revealed a 4.2% positivity rate for HEMDETECT versa 3.4% for HAEMOCCULT.

[Does prolonging the test period improve screening for colorectal cancer?].

Prolongation of Haemoccult-screening from 3 to 6 days in 3540 out-patients resulted in a rise of the positivity rate from 4.1 to 6.75%.

[Does rehydration improve hemoccult screening for intestinal cancer?].

Rehydration, i.e. adding water to the dryed stool specimen before development, is a simple procedure to increase the sensitivity of the Hemoccult test.

[Qualification and quality control in sonography].

On the basis of guidelines issued by the Kassenärztliche Vereingung Hessen, some criteria for the application of sonographic examinations are presented. Minimal requirements for sonographic equipment in certain specialties are mentioned, and it is pointed out how not only case history and clinical examination but also one's own sonographic evidence are important for a accurate sonographic diagnosis.

[Laparoscopic sonography. A new dimension in the diagnostic approach to internal organs].

A newly developed laparoscopic sonography probe was used for assessment of upper abdominal and retroperitoneal organs. A linear array instrument with a frequency of 7 MHz was used. The cross-sectional width is 3.

[Sonography and pharmacoangiography of the pancreas (author's transl)].

Real-Time-Sonography and pharmacoangiography with vasodilating drugs was performed in 63 patients with suspected pancreatic disease. Confirmation of the pancreatic lesion could be obtained in 41 cases by the symptomatology, pancreatic function test, autopsy, operation, laparoscopy with fine-needle-biopsy and by the roentgenologic visualization of pancreatic calcifications. Considering the relatively advanced disease of pancreatic carcinoma in our six patients the sonographic diagnosis was correct in all of them and with pharmacoangiography we failed on one case.