Levosimendan versus milrinone in neonates and infants after corrective open-heart surgery: a pilot study.

Objective: Low cardiac output syndrome commonly complicates the postoperative course after open-heart surgery in children. To prevent low cardiac output syndrome, prophylactic administration of milrinone after cardiopulmonary bypass is commonly used in small children. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of prophylactically administered levosimendan and milrinone on cardiac index in neonates and infants after corrective open-heart surgery.

Osteopetrosis due to homozygous chloride channel ClCN7 mutation mimicking metabolic disease with haematological and neurological impairment.

Unlabelled: We report on the fatal clinical course of a 3 year old male Turkish patient suffering from osteopetrosis caused by a homozygous mutation in the chloride channel gene ClCN7 with developing pancytopenia and severe neurological impairment. Hepatosplenomegaly due to extramedullary hematopoesis, severe transfusion-dependent anemia and growth failure initially suggested metabolic or oncologic disorder. Particular haematological parameters like tear drop cells basophilic punctation of the polymorphonuclear cells in the absence of haemolysis caused the diagnostic X-ray investigations of the skull and vertebral column.

Must screening examinations for retinopathy of prematurity necessarily be painful?

Purpose: This study investigates the impact of the length of the examination, the insertion of eyelid specula, and the indentation of the globe on the pain and stress sensation of premature infants.

Methods: Ninety-two premature infants in three neonatal wards were included. In two wards, the patients were examined using eyelid specula and scleral indentation as recommended in the official guidelines.

[FSME monitoring: monitoring of adverse events of tick-borne-encephalitis vaccines by selected paediatricians and general practitioners].

The Institute for Vaccine-Safety of the Austrian Green Cross, the so-called "Institut für Impfsicherheit des Osterreichischen Grünen Kreuzes", promoted a postmarketing sentinel study referring to the safety of tick-borne-encephalitis vaccines in spring 2002. Five-hundred selected paediatricians and general practitioners took part and generated data on 25,905 administered doses. They reported on 107/25,907 (0.