Palivizumab prophylaxis of respiratory syncytial virus disease in 2000-2001: results from The Palivizumab Outcomes Registry.

The objective of the Registry was to characterize the population of infants receiving prophylaxis for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease by describing the patterns and scope of usage of palivizumab in a cross section of US infants. RSV hospitalization outcomes were also described. The Palivizumab (Synagis, MedImmune, Inc.

Reliability and validity of the psychiatry resident in-training examination.

The Psychiatry Resident In-Training Examination (PRTTE) has been produced annually since 1979. On each test from 1980 through 1987, the Kuder-Richardson reliability coefficient for the global score in psychiatry was above .90.

Serum and red cell folate concentrations in outpatients receiving lithium carbonate.

We measured serum and RBC folate levels in 17 outpatients taking lithium for the prophylaxis of recurrent major affective disorder. In contrast to a previous report, we found no evidence for low folate concentrations or for any significant correlation between folate levels and affective morbidity.

Primary lymphatic dysplasia in children: chylothorax, chylous ascites, and generalized lymphatic dysplasia.

Primary lymphatic "dysplasia", a congenital maldevelopment, interferes with function of the lymphatic system and causes effusion of chyle or lymph into the limbs and pleural or peritoneal cavity. Between 1955 and 1982, 38 Mayo Clinic patients were found to have a chylous effusion or dysplasia of the lymphatic system. In 22, the condition was secondary to surgery or other medical problems and in 16 it was primary.

Low density lipoprotein inhibits the physical interaction of phlogistic crystals and inflammatory cells.

Low density lipoprotein (LDL) is the major plasma inhibitor of neutrophil oxidative and lytic responses to monosodium urate crystals and may function to modulate acute gouty inflammation. LDL inhibited apparent phagocytosis of urate crystals by human neutrophils, suggesting it may interfere with early events in the crystal-induced stimulation of neutrophils. The effects were not specific for neutrophils, since human platelet secretory and membranolytic responses to urate crystals were also inhibited by purified LDL in doses as low as 10 micrograms/ml.

Appropriate and inappropriate use of psychotherapeutic medications for institutionalized mentally retarded persons.

Evaluation of psychiatric treatment in institutions must be based not only on the numbers and types of drugs prescribed but also on diagnoses and other characteristics of the patients. We crosstabulated psychotherapeutic medication regimens against diagnoses for 242 institutionalized mentally retarded adolescents and adults selected for psychiatric treatment. The drugs had generally been prescribed by nonpsychiatrists, but diagnoses were determined by consensus of evaluation teams that included fully trained psychiatrists.

Primary lymphedema in children and adolescents: a follow-up study and review.

Primary lymphedema, a disorder causing persistent swelling in an extremity, is rare in children and adolescents; it affects 1.15/100,000 persons less than age 20 years. It primarily affects girls near menarche.

Affective disorder in the families of women with normal weight bulimia.

The authors determined the lifetime prevalence of affective disorder in the first- and second-degree relatives, excluding children, of 27 bulimic women who had never had anorexia nervosa and 27 women with no history of an eating disorder. Family diagnoses were made blind to the proband's diagnosis. The prevalence of affective disorder was 9% in the relatives of the bulimic probands and 10% in the relatives of the control probands, a nonsignificant difference.

Age-related neuropsychological deficits in Down's syndrome.

Down's syndrome (DS) has been suggested as a high-risk condition for Dementia Alzheimer's type (DAT). In the present study, neuropsychological variables were assessed in 165 DS subjects and 163 matched mentally retarded controls. Overall, DS subjects had lower scores for orientation, digit span, visual memory, object-naming, and general knowledge, as well as more "released" reflexes.

Clinical evaluation of dementia in Down's syndrome: a preliminary report.

Down's syndrome residents were found to have significantly greater impairment on measures of orientation, attention span, digit span recall, visual memory, object identification and praxis, and were more likely to have pathological released reflexes than age and IQ matched controls. Neuropsychiatric status tended to worsen with advancing age in Down's syndrome, but not in controls. Forty-five percent of DS individuals age 45 or older had a full syndrome of dementia, compared to only 5% of controls.

Electroconvulsive treatment of psychotic self-injurious behavior in a patient with severe mental retardation.

This report describes a severely retarded adult patient whose self-injurious behavior became acutely life threatening. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was prohibited by law, but it was administered after the law was judged unconstitutional. The patient's response to ECT was excellent, and there were no adverse consequences.

Evidence for an unconventional virus in mouse-adapted Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Homogenates of a human brain from a case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and a homogenate of mouse brains from mouse passage 1 of the disease in mice contained no detectable conventional viruses. Both human material and mouse-passaged material were inoculated into nude mice, and the mouse-passaged material was also inoculated into eight different tissue culture lines. The tissue cultures showed no cytopathic changes or hemadsorption and failed to produce an increased amount of reverse transcriptase.

Evidence for normal cell-mediated immunity in scrapie-infected mice.

Comparisons between mixed lymphocyte cultures of splenocytes from scrapie-infected and normal mouse brain-inoculated control mice did not reveal any evidence of an impaired cell-mediated immune response in scrapie-infected mice. Likewise, mixed lymphocyte cultures of splenocytes from scrapie-infected and normal mice demonstrated that infected spleen cells had no scrapie-specific antigens on their surfaces. These data suggested that the absence of a detectable scrapie-specific immune response in infected mice was the result of an absence of an exposed scrapie-specific antigen and not due to any direct effect on the immune system.

Hyperkinesis treated by vestibular stimulation: an exploratory study.

In crossover design with alternate assignment to order, 18 hyperkinetic children were treated with eyes-open rotational vestibular stimulation and with control contact, each eight times over 4-week periods. On behavioral ratings by teachers, they scored better after eight sessions of rotational stimulation than after eight control sessions. This treatment advantage was restricted to the ten children younger than age 10 without undersocialized-aggressive features.

Megavitamins for minimal brain dysfunction. A placebo-controlled study.

Preliminary to a stimulant comparison study, 31 children with minimal brain dysfunction randomly received either placebo or a megavitamin combination. During a two-week trial, only two children responded so well that stiumlants were not considered necessary; both were in the placebo group. Change scores from pretest to posttest on four blind ratings by teachers and parents did not show a significant difference between the placebo and vitamin groups.