Antenatal diagnosis of urological disorders by ultrasound: a critical review.

The suspected diagnosis of urological disorders made on the basis of antenatal ultrasonography was compared with the final outcome in 23 cases. In 18 cases the initial diagnosis could be confirmed, whereas 5 showed no postnatal urological anomalies. Further efforts should be undertaken to improve prenatal diagnosis in order to facilitate treatment as early as possible.

Area under pH 4: advantages of a new parameter in the interpretation of esophageal pH monitoring data in infants.

Twenty-four-hour continuous esophageal pH monitoring has become the preferred test to quantify acid gastroesophageal reflux. Agreement has been achieved that acid gastric content reflux into the esophagus constitutes a major cause of reflux esophagitis; we therefore calculated the "area under pH 4" (A) in 560 consecutive pH monitorings in infants 1-12 months old and related this parameter (A) to the reflux index (RI): RI less than 10%: A 185 +/- 295 (mean +/- 1 SD); RI 10-19%: A 1,046 +/- 1,206; RI 20-29%: A 1,967 +/- 2,038; RI 30-39%: A 3,307 +/- 2,955; RI greater than 40%: A 7,977 +/- 7,227. A higher RI is associated with a greater area under pH 4 (p less than 0.

Congenital hypothyroid goiter and amiodarone.

Amiodarone is an anti-arrhythmic drug with a content of 39% Iodine. No adverse effects on fetal thyroid function have previously been observed with maternal ingestion of Amiodarone during pregnancy. A case of severe congenital hypothyroidism with goiter, associated with maternal ingestion of 200 mg Amiodarone daily from the 13th week of pregnancy, is described here.

Gastro-oesophageal reflux in infants. Evaluation of treatment by pH monitoring.

Forty bottle-fed babies, 4-12 weeks old, with clinical gastro-oesophageal reflux were studied. Continuous 24 h oesophageal pH monitoring in a prone position demonstrated a gastro-oesophageal reflux with all of the following parameters: reflux index, duration of the longest reflux episode, number of reflux episodes in 24 h, number of reflux episodes greater than 5 min in 24 h. Positional therapy (prone-antitrendelenburg position), applied to all infants, resulted in a normalization of these parameters in ten of them.

Continuous 24-hour esophageal pH monitoring in 285 asymptomatic infants 0-15 months old.

A continuous 24-h esophageal pH monitoring was performed in 283 asymptomatic infants between 5 days and 15 months old. Several parameters (reflux index, duration of the longest reflux episode, number of reflux episodes in 24 h, number of reflux episodes greater than 5 min in 24 h) were studied in different groups of infants according to their age: 5-15 days old, 24-37 days old, 3.5-4.