Selective unilateral lung ventilation in preterm infants with acquired bullous emphysema: a series of nine cases.

Background And Aims: Immature lungs of preterm infants are particularly prone to overdistension from mechanical ventilation or continuous positive airway pressure. In these infants a localized pulmonary emphysema (PE) can develop. Conventional therapy regimens to resolve this process sometimes fail and especially in the case of bullous emphysema (BE) invasive procedures such as surgical resection of the affected lobe ultimately may be required.

Severe obstructive sleep apnea alleviated by oral appliance in a three-year-old boy.

This clinical report describes a 3.5-year-old boy suffering from chronic daytime fatigue, accumulated snoring and dramatically appearing apnea during sleep. Oxycardiorespirography revealed a breathing pattern similar to repetitive obstructive apnea and an oxygen saturation periodically dropping to 80%.

Lethal hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome type II.

Griscelli syndrome (GS) was diagnosed in a 2-year-old patient with oculocutaneous albinism and immunodeficiency, but sequencing of RAB27a revealed only a heterozygous mutation. Due to impaired natural killer (NK) and T-cell cytotoxicity implying a high risk of developing hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), he was prepared for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Unexpectedly, a severe bleeding episode occurred that led to the demonstration of disturbed platelet aggregation, reduced plateletdense granules, and impaired platelet degranulation.

New aspects of airway mechanics in pre-term infants.

High-frequency respiratory impedance data measured noninvasively by the high-speed interrupter technique (HIT), particularly the first antiresonance frequency (f(ar,1)), is related to airway wall mechanics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and repeatability of HIT in unsedated pre-term infants, and to compare values of f(ar,1) from 18 pre-term (post-conceptional age 32-37 weeks, weight 1,730-2,910 g) and 18 full-term infants (42-47 weeks, 3,920-5,340 g). Among the pre-term infants, there was good short-term repeatability of f(ar,1) within a single sleep epoch (mean (sd) coefficient of variance: 8 (1.

In vitro validation of an ultrasonic flowmeter in order to measure the functional residual capacity in newborns.

Ultrasonic transit-time airflow meters (UFM) allow simultaneous measurements of volume flow V'(t) and molar mass MM(t) of the breathing gas in the mainstream. Consequently, by using a suitable tracer gas the functional residual capacity (FRC) of the lungs can be measured by a gas wash-in/wash-out technique. The aim of this study was to investigate the in vitro accuracy of a multiple-breath wash-in/wash-out technique for FRC measurements using 4% sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) in air.

Development of airway function in infancy after preterm delivery.

Objective: To assess airway function at 1 year and compare this with similar measurements made shortly after birth in preterm infants without clinical neonatal respiratory disease.

Study Design: Infants born at View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pediatric reference ranges for osteocalcin measured by the Immulite analyzer.

Pediatric reference ranges for osteocalcin measured by a new, fully automated, chemiluminescent immunometric assay on the Immulite immunoanalyzer are presented. Samples from 627 children, ranging from newborns to 18 years of age, were measured. Osteocalcin values are generally higher in children than in adults, highest levels being reached during the puberty growth spurt at about 12 years in girls and 14 years in boys, thereafter rapidly declining towards adult levels.

[Lung function reference data in school-age children].

Unlabelled: The practical interpretation of lung function data depends to a very great extent on the quality of reference values.

Methods: From a population of n = 2615 schoolchildren between 6 and 12 years of age 15,404 lung function measurements were taken in accordance with commonly accepted guidelines. In the present study the validity of reference equations from the literature is examined with regard to our measured data.

Tidal forced expirations. ERS/ATS Task Force on Standards for Infant Respiratory Function Testing. European Respiratory Society/American Thoracic Society.

The progress of infant lung function testing has been retarded by both the lack of user-friendly, widely available and affordable equipment and the lack of standardized methodology. The European Respiratory Society/American Thoracic Society Task Force on Standards for Infant Respiratory Function Testing was formed in an attempt to address these deficiencies. This document represents the consensus of investigators with vast experience in the measurement of lung function in infants.

NO in exhaled air is correlated with markers of eosinophilic airway inflammation in corticosteroid-dependent childhood asthma.

The relationship between nitric oxide in exhaled air, levels of sputum eosinophils, sputum eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and urinary eosinophil protein X (EPX) excretion has not yet been investigated in corticosteroid-dependent childhood asthma. Therefore, taking 25 children with stable asthma (mean age 11.2 yrs) treated with inhaled corticosteroids and nine nonatopic healthy control children (mean age 12.

Assessment of airway function using partial expiratory flow-volume curves: How reliable are measurements of maximal expiratory flow at frc during early infancy?

We investigated the extent to which measurements of maximal expiratory flow at FRC (V EmaxFRC) are influenced by the dynamic increase of FRC in young infants by superimposing partial forced expiratory flow-volume curves on those obtained after lung inflation to 2 kPa (20 cm H2O) in 12 infants during the first month of life. The elastic equilibrium volume (EEV) of the respiratory system was estimated by extrapolating the passive expiratory time constant (obtained after lung inflation but prior to forced deflation) to zero flow. There was a very strong relationship between V EmaxFRC (which ranged from 11 to 190 ml/s) and the extent to which FRC was dynamically increased above EEV (range: 0 to 5 ml/kg), r2 = 0.

Analysis of forced expiratory maneuvers from raised lung volumes in preterm infants.

During recent years it has been suggested that forced expiratory measurements, derived from a lung volume set by a standardized inflation pressure, are more reproducible than those attained during tidal breathing when the rapid thoracoabdominal compression technique is used in infants. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of obtaining measurements from raised lung volumes in unsedated preterm infants. Measurements were made in 18 infants (gestational age 26-35 wk, postnatal age 1-10 wk, test weight 1.

Respiratory function among preterm infants whose mothers smoked during pregnancy.

We examined whether the adverse effects of prenatal exposure to tobacco on lung development are limited to the last weeks of gestation by comparing respiratory function in preterm infants whose mothers had and had not smoked during pregnancy. Maximal forced expiratory flow (Vmax FRC) and time to peak tidal expiratory flow as a proportion of total expiratory time (TPTEF:TE) were measured prior to discharge from hospital in 108 preterm infants (mean [SD] gestational age, 33.5 [1.

Influence of ethnicity and gender on airway function in preterm infants.

While maximal expiratory flow at functional residual capacity, calculated from partial expiratory flow volume curves (V'maxFRC), is a valuable measure of peripheral airway function in infants, limited data are available in preterm infants despite their high prevalence of respiratory problems. To investigate the influence of gender and ethnic group, V'maxFRC and other indices of respiratory function were measured in 28 black and 28 white preterm infants (50% female in each group) at time of discharge from the neonatal unit (mean [SD] weight 2.36 [0.

Sporadic congenital hyperthyroidism due to a spontaneous germline mutation in the thyrotropin receptor gene.

Neonatal hyperthyroidism in the absence of maternal autoimmune thyroid disease and without thyroid-stimulating antibodies in the child is rare. We here describe a boy with severe intrauterine hyperthyroidism and advanced bone age in the absence of thyroid-stimulating autoantibodies. After long term antithyroid treatment and relapse of hyperthyroidism, a near-total thyroid resection was performed.

The internal dose of passive smoking at home depends on the size of the dwelling.

As part of a longitudinal study two urine samples (survey 1 in 1991 and survey 2 in 1992) were collected from 602 elementary school children to investigate the relationship between urinary cotinine excretion (UCE) and the daily consumption of cigarettes at home (exposure). Size of the dwelling, educational level, and maternal smoking were taken into consideration as additional predictors. The history regarding parental smoking habits and confounding variables was ascertained by standardized questionnaires completed by the parents.