[Multidisciplinary management of children with disabling chronic pain in a French pediatric rehabilitation center: Current management and perspectives].

Introduction: Chronic pain in children and adolescents has a major impact on their life in terms of school, sleep as well as family and social life. Teenagers aged 13-15 and girls are at the highest risk. Zeltzer et al.

Plasma profiling determinants of matrix homeostasis in paediatric dilated cardiomyopathy.

Objective: Dilated cardiomyopathy is an important cause of cardiac failure in both children and adults, but is more progressive in children. In adult dilated cardiomyopathy, left ventricular remodelling is associated with changes in the plasma levels of matrix metalloproteinases and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases. Plasma matrix metalloproteinases and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase changes in paediatric dilated cardiomyopathy have not been examined.

Microchannel array detector for quantitative electronic radioautography.

The microchannel array detector provides direct electronic detection and real time imaging of radioactive tracers in samples that traditionally have been imaged by film radioautography. The technology of the detector is described, and the main benefits of this new technology, speed and precise quantitation, are illustrated with practical results. The instrument response to a 14C dilution series (range of 10(5)) was linear over the whole range.

51Cr-release assay adapted to a 96-well format sample reading.

The application of the Matrix 96, a direct beta counter, to monitor cell-mediated lympholysis assays (CML) was investigated. Until now, the gamma rays emitted from 51Cr, released in the supernatant of the sample following lysis of targets by effector cells, were read in gamma counters using individual tubes for each sample. The Matrix 96 has been designed to count 96 wells simultaneously for assays performed in 96-well microplates.

Application of the direct beta counter Matrix 96 for cytotoxic assays: simultaneous processing and reading of 96 wells using a 51Cr-retention assay.

To assess the cytotoxic activity of immune cells, we have developed a 51Cr-retention assay in which the radioactivity retained by 51Cr-labeled target cells, following coincubation with cytotoxic cells, is monitored using the automated Matrix 96 beta counter. The Matrix 96 is designed for simultaneously counting 96 samples isolated from a 96-well microplate. It uses 96 uniform and independent detectors operating on the principle of avalanche gas ionization in the Geiger-Muller mode.