Behavioral support to parents through a cellular-phone website that provides the degree of urgency for medical attention of a child.

When a child suddenly falls ill, the child's family assesses if medical attention is required immediately. However, even in case of minor illnesses, it is not possible to approach a medical institution after consultation hours, and the burden on doctors from overtime-emergency medical examinations becomes a social problem. This study proposes the use of a cellular-phone website that provides information about the degree of urgency for medical attention to parents, who can choose the child's symptoms on the cellular-phone website regardless of the time or place.

Serum dipeptidyl peptidase 4 activity in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Background: It is poorly understood whether dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) activity is altered and how DPP4 contributes to glycemic control in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM).

Aim: The aim of this study was to measure serum DPP4 activity and to assess its relationships to metabolic variables in T1DM children.

Methods: Serum DPP4 activity was determined using a fluorometric assay in 43 T1DM and 26 control children.

A Japanese boy with adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) deficiency caused by compound heterozygosity including a novel missense mutation in APRT gene.

Unlabelled: We describe a 2-year-old Japanese boy with radiolucent urolithiasis and recurrent urinary tract infection. Urinalysis showed typical 2,8-dihydroxyadenine (2,8-DHA) crystals, leading to a diagnosis as adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) deficiency. The sensitivity of proliferating T cells to an adenine analogue, whose cytotoxicity is dependent on APRT, showed that he was homozygous or compound heterozygous for the APRT gene mutation.

Changes in serum adiponectin levels from birth to term-equivalent age are associated with postnatal weight gain in preterm infants.

Background: Adiponectin, one of the adipocytokines, is postulated to play a key role in fetal growth, probably enhancing the growth-promoting effect of insulin through insulin-sensitizing action.

Objectives And Methods: To examine how different intrauterine or postnatal growth patterns relate to adiponectin secretion, we measured serum adiponectin concentrations in 30 appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) and 19 small-for-gestational-age (SGA) preterm infants on the first day of life and at term-equivalent age.

Results: The serum levels of adiponectin increased significantly in all preterm infants from birth to term-equivalent age.

Mild encephalitis/encephalopathy with a reversible splenial lesion: evaluation by diffusion tensor imaging. Two case reports.

Mild encephalitis/encephalopathy with a reversible splenial lesion (MERS) is a clinico-radiological syndrome with a very particular clinical course. Three patients with MERS were evaluated by various sequences of magnetic resonance imaging with diffusion tensor imaging. Initial diffusion-weighted imaging showed reduction in the apparent diffusion coefficient values in the lesions, which completely resolved with the elimination of symptoms.

Serum resistin concentrations in children with Kawasaki disease.

Objective: Human resistin is expressed strongly in monocytes or macrophages rather than in adipocytes and may play a pivotal role in inflammation. We hypothesize that resistin levels are elevated in patients with Kawasaki disease (KD) in the acute phase and may be associated with the disease severity.

Design And Subjects: Serum resistin concentrations were measured in 44 Japanese children with KD and 17 age-matched healthy children.

Serum resistin concentrations in growth hormone-deficient children during growth hormone replacement therapy.

We performed this study to examine whether the serum resistin concentrations in growth hormone (GH)-deficient (GHD) children are influenced by administration of GH and to assess the relationship between serum resistin and free fatty acid levels during GH replacement therapy. The study included 20 prepubertal GHD children (16 boys and 4 girls) who were treated with recombinant human GH (hGH). The serum levels of resistin, insulin-like growth factor I, free fatty acid (FFA), triglyceride, cholesterol and glucose levels, leukocyte counts, and hemoglobin A(1c) were measured at baseline and after 1 month of hGH treatment.

Serum levels of adiponectin and IGFBP-1 in short children born small for gestational age.

Objective: The aim of this study was to quantify serum adiponectin concentrations in short children born small for gestational age (SGA) compared with those in children born appropriate for gestational age (AGA), and to assess the relationship between the serum levels of adiponectin and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) known as a predictor of the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease.

Subjects And Methods: Sixteen prepubertal short children born SGA and 20 short children born AGA, matched for age, body mass index, height, pubertal status, gestational age, bone age and midparental height, were included in the study. The serum levels of adiponectin, IGFBP-1, insulin and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) were measured in the fasting state.