Positive expiratory pressure (PEP) treatment in children with multiple severe disabilities.

Background: Children with multiple severe disabilities cannot be spontaneously physically active and therefore lack the ventilatory stimulation of physical activity. They often produce large quantities of airway mucus, which they have difficulty to evacuate on their own. The accumulation of mucus may lead to respiratory insufficiency.

Regional cerebral blood flow in weight-restored anorexia nervosa: a preliminary study.

Twenty-one individuals (19 females, two males) with teenage-onset anorexia nervosa (AN), 19 of whom were weight restored, were assessed using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) 7 years after onset of AN, at a mean age of 22 years. For comparison we recruited a younger group without neuropsychiatric disorder (mean age 9:8 years; five females, four males) who underwent SPECT at follow-up after an operation for coarctation of the aorta or because of lymphatic leukaemia. Ethical considerations precluded the study of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in participants with completely normal development.

Regional cerebral blood flow and neuron-specific enolase in cerebrospinal fluid in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia during induction treatment.

Purpose: To investigate possible side effects on the central nervous system from intrathecal methotrexate given during induction treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in childhood.

Patients And Methods: Twenty-five children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia were examined by cerebral single photon emission computed tomography at the beginning of treatment (16 untreated, 9 during the first week) and after 4 weeks of treatment. Cerebrospinal fluid was sampled for analyses of neuron-specific enolase on four occasions in 54 patients.

Computed tomography and single-photon emission computed tomography as diagnostic tools in acquired brain injury among children and adolescents.

Twenty children with acquired brain injuries were investigated with CT and SPECT. The findings were related to the clinical outcome judged at discharge following acute care after the injury and at follow-up 5 years later. The abnormalities that were found were classified for each lobe on a scale ranging from 0 (normal) to 5 (severe abnormality).

Regional cerebral blood flow abnormalities in Rett syndrome.

Sixteen Rett syndrome (RS) girls and 1 24 year old RS woman were compared with 16 neurologically healthy children as to the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). Hypoperfusion of the frontal lobes and parts of the midbrain was found in RS, with significant differences to controls at latest by the age of three to four years. The findings were in accordance with previous reports of morphological, neuroradiological and functional abnormalities in these areas, compatible with a statement that structures in the midbrain and in the frontal lobes may have particular pathophysiological relevance in RS.