Hearing Loss in Patients with Shunt-Treated Hydrocephalus.

Hearing loss is a common manifestation of the long-term complications in patients with shunt treated hydrocephalus along with motor development disturbance, cognitive and visual impairment, epilepsy and endocrine disorders. The aim of the present study was to investigate the alterations of hearing in patients with shunt treated hydrocephalus of non-tumor etiology and at least one year after implantation of ventriculo-peritoneal shunt, as well as their impact on the quality of life of patients. The study included 70 patients (age range 1.

Somatosensory evoked potentials in full-term neonates with perinatal asphyxia.

Objective: To explore the capacity of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) to assess maturation processes in the development of the nervous system, and the characteristics of SEP in healthy full-term infants and full-term newborns with perinatal asphyxia and their follow up until the age of 14 months.

Materials And Methods: SEP were studied in 21 healthy full-term infants and 38 full-term newborns with perinatal asphyxia. The children with asphyxia were studied longitudinally until they were 14 months old.

Founder p.Arg 446* mutation in the PDHX gene explains over half of cases with congenital lactic acidosis in Roma children.

Investigation of 31 of Roma patients with congenital lactic acidosis (CLA) from Bulgaria identified homozygosity for the R446* mutation in the PDHX gene as the most common cause of the disorder in this ethnic group. It accounted for around 60% of patients in the study and over 25% of all CLA cases referred to the National Genetic Laboratory in Bulgaria. The detection of a homozygous patient from Hungary and carriers among population controls from Romania and Slovakia suggests a wide spread of the mutation in the European Roma population.

Psychomotor development after ganciclovir selectively treated congenital and perinatal cytomegalovirus infection.

Aim: To study the development of children with selectively treated cytomegalovirus infection.

Patients And Methods: We studied prospectively a risk group of 12 children with cytomegalovirus infection. These children were diagnosed by serological screening in the first three months after birth and are defined as congenital and perinatal infections.

Age-related changes of the somatosensory evoked potentials in healthy children.

Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate the configuration and latency of the somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) in healthy children for the time from the neonatal period to adolescence.

Material And Methods: SEPs were recorded in 67 healthy children--37 boys and 30 girls from 0 to 16 years of age by means of median nerve stimulation. The active electrode was placed above the contralateral parietal cortex on places C3' and C4' and the reference electrode--on Fpz.