Strategies for optimizing compliance of paediatric patients for seasonal antibacterial vaccination with sublingually administered Polyvalent Mechanical Bacterial Lysates (PMBL).

The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate efficacy, tolerance and compliance of paediatric patients vis-à-vis a cycle of PMBL treatment (a sublingual tablet taken for ten consecutive days over three consecutive months). The study enrolled 89 children (65 randomised to the treated group and 24 to the control group). The study protocol included an enrolment check-up (TO) and follow-ups at two months (T1), three months (T2) and nine months (T3) following the end of treatment, during which episodes of RRI were recorded; the main blood chemistry, immunology and phlogosis parameters were measured, together with hepatic, renal and bone marrow toxicity indexes.

[Primary response to tetanus toxoid stimulation in early infancy].

The authors attempt to evaluate the degree of immune response to the first dose of anti-tetanus vaccination in young infants and to study the correlation between maternal and infantile antitetanus antibody titers. The sample studied comprised 5 males and 5 females aged between 61 and 75 days old, without acute and/or chronic pathologies and uncircumsized. Three samples of peripheral venous blood were collected for each infant: 1 at time 0, and the other two during the 15 days after the administration of the first dose of tetanus toxoid.

[Evaluation of the immune status of children never treated wtih chemoantibiotics (children 3 to 6 years old)].

Six children aged between three and six years, born from undamaged families and free from malformative, chronic, degenerative or metabolic diseases, never treated with chemoantibiotics, were checked for their immune status. They were compared with other six children with the same somatic characteristics, the same health status and the same economical-social condition as the first six ones; but frequently treated with chemoantibiotics (not less than three therapy periods during each year of their life). The comparative study was performed by checking various parameters (lymphocyte blastization; rosette "E"; T3, T4, T8 lymphocytes with T4/T8 ratio; B lymphocytes; NK cells, chemotaxis; phagocytosis; killing; serum immunoglobulins A, G, M; C3; C4) index of immune functions, in uniform conditions.

[Effect of the emotional state on immune functions: study on firstborn children on the occasion of the birth of a sibling].

The eventuality that a particular emotional involvement could weigh heavily on a person's psychophysical welfare, assuming a complementary role in the appearance of clinically noticeable pathologies (infections, allergies, neoplasms) has been object of several hypotheses which have been confirmed in researches on animals. Our research, by examining an unavoidable and surely natural situation like that one of the birth of a brother for a first born, a particularly severe for what affectivity is concerned, had the aim to evidence if there were some biological expressions, able to quantitatively settle the eventual immune functions' alterations indicative of a preexistent equilibrium. With this purpose have been examined several biological expressions indicative of immune functions (B lymphocytes, T lymphocytes, NK cells, lymphocyte transformation, chemotaxis, phagocytosis, C3 Complement fraction) in three first-born children with 2 to 3 years of age, whose mothers had in course a second pregnancy, during a period of about 20 months (from III pregnancy month to XIV month of age of the brother).

[Secretory IgA: quality control of the titration method].

In order to verify if the method for the titration of salivary secretory IgA (s-IgA) by the technical of radial immunodiffusion is trustworthy, have been carried out the precision tests in the series and among the series in two saliva samples with very different s-IgA concentrations, and precision and accuracy tests in the series and among the series using a solution with a known titre of IgA. The results of the first battery tests have shown a precision ranging from 93.04 to 95.

[Validity limits of data on secretory IgA].

Secretory IgA (sIgA) in saliva, and sometimes in expectoration, have been titrated in various groups of persons, both in pediatric age and in adults, by means of radial immunodiffusion technic. The aim was to find differences among sIgA levels in the course of respiratory tract infections, both acute and chronic, in consequence of treatment with Erythromycin (in children and in adults) in consequence of surgical intervention (in adults). Adjunctive aim was to establish if it was possible to recognize hereditary of the character that remark the predisposition to produce high sIgA quantities.

[Various immune functions (with particular attention to NK cells) in young people with frequent episodes of pharyngitis].

In four girls, selected during three years of ambulatory observations, the evolution of repeated upper respiratory tract infection events, under the immunologic aspect, has been studied. The group of girls, with age between 13 and 16 years, practically formed a small casuistry, as an experimental recruitment. With the aim to find the causes of the told infectious events, firstly were checked numerous immune functions, successively were evaluated only the ones that had resulted altered (percentage number of "NK" cells, complement "C3" fraction and "T4" lymphocytes).

Aminophylline blood levels with concomitant erythromycin therapy in relapsed chronic obstructive lung disease.

Sixty patients affected by chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD) in relapse were treated with erythromycin and aminophylline. The patients were divided into three groups: Group A received 2 g erythromycin and 1200 mg aminophylline daily, and Group B and C received 2 g erythromycin with respectively 800 mg and 600 mg of aminophylline daily, administered as two oral doses in each case. On day 5 of therapy, we chromatographically evaluated aminophylline in a serum sample taken two hours after morning drug administration which corresponds to the peak plasma level.

Clinical study with cefoxitin in paediatrics.

A trial of cefoxitin was performed on 25 children needing urgent and accurate antibiotic therapy before laboratory test results could be made available. Cefoxitin proved to be highly active in the treatment of infections of bacterial origin. It was therefore found suitable for use in the clinical situation where the urgency of the need for treatment differs from theoretical practice.

[Recent trends in the serologic diagnosis of pertussis].

Anti-whooping cough agglutinin titrations were performed in various groups of children by employing a special antigen and a microtechnique. Moderate agglutinating titers were detected in the first trimester of life and were interpreted as transmitted from the mother. Rare and moderate titers were observed in a group of children of school age, randomly selected and non institutionalized, while, on the contrary, an analogous institutionalized group showed more frequent and higher rate of antibodies.

[Antistaphylococcal activity of gentamicin].

A review of the literature suggests the following conclusions: 1) since its first practical use in 1965, namely over the past 10 years, there has been no drop in activity of Gentamicin on Staphylococcus aureus and on numerous other Staphylococcus and/or Micrococcus species. 2) In comparison with the other aminoglycosidic antibiotics employed up to the present, i.e.