Challenges in Transition From Childhood to Adulthood Care in Rare Metabolic Diseases: Results From the First Multi-Center European Survey.

Inherited Metabolic Diseases (IMDs) are rare diseases caused by genetic defects in biochemical pathways. Earlier diagnosis and advances in treatment have improved the life expectancy of IMD patients over the last decades, with the majority of patients now surviving beyond the age of 20. This has created a new challenge: as they grow up, the care of IMD patients' needs to be transferred from metabolic pediatricians to metabolic physicians specialized in treating adults, through a process called "transition.

Treatment of allergic alveolitis with methylprednisolone pulse therapy.

We report on a 13-year-old-boy who had been admitted to our hospital for dyspnea, hypoxia, and pulmonary infiltrates. The diagnosis of allergic alveolitis was based on history (provocation by exposure), lung function tests, bronchoalveolar lavage, and transbronchial lung biopsy. No specific allergen could be identified.