Safety and immunogenicity of Chiron/Biocine recombinant acellular pertussis-diphtheria-tetanus vaccine in infants and toddlers.

Objective: To evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the recombinant acellular pertussis-diphtheria-tetanus (aPDT) vaccine (C-aPDT, Chiron/Biocine).

Study Design: This is a randomized blinded trial evaluating the safety and immunogenicity of the recombinant aPDT vaccine (C-aPDT, Chiron/Biocine) in 2000 infant recipients compared with 498 controls who received whole cell diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (wDPT; Connaught) vaccine at 2, 4 and 6 months of age. In addition the safety and immunogenicity of the same C-aPDT vaccine were evaluated as a booster dose in a subset of the same population when given at 15 to 18 months of age and compared with licensed Lederle aPDT vaccine.

Early discontinuation of antibiotic treatment in newborns admitted to rule out sepsis: a decision rule.

We developed a decision rule to define a group of newborns eligible for discontinuation of antibiotic treatment 24 hours after initiation. The decision rule is based on two clinical assessments, three demographic variables, four maternal risk factors and six laboratory studies. The rule was created by retrospective analysis of all admissions to rule out sepsis at 10 Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region nurseries during a 2-month period in 1990.

Cerebral venous thrombosis as a cause of neonatal seizures.

Intracranial venous thrombosis has been described in newborns, but there have been no reports of intractable neonatal seizures due to this condition. We report cortical venous sinus thrombosis in two term neonates who presented with seizures in the first 24 hours of life. The diagnosis was made by cranial computed tomography and was confirmed by cerebral angiography.