Historic review: the foundation-period and the first 15 years of the "Gesellschaft fuer Neuropaediatrie" (GNP) between 1950 and 1990.

After the end of Nazi terrorism with many crimes against neuropsychiatric and disabled people, from 1950 on detection and treatment of these diseases in children and adolescents grew continuously: in the 50s and 60s, several German books on neuropediatric topics were published, a journal was founded, and junior pediatricians established many scientific contacts with foreign neuropediatricians. In 1972, the team of the Kehl-Kork Epilepsy Clinic invited neuropediatric colleagues from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland for a first joint workshop. On March 4th, 1975, the Neuropaediatric Society of the German-speaking countries was founded in Heidelberg and its goals, as well as guidelines for membership, were formulated.

Historic review: a short history of neuropediatrics in Germany between 1850 and 1950.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, there has been increasing knowledge about the diagnosis and therapy of diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system and muscle in children. The leading causes were cerebral palsy, epilepsy, inflammatory and degenerative diseases, and the innate reduction in intelligence. Because of the often lack of healing options, many pediatricians had little interest in treating these children and left their care to the pedagogues and psychologists.

[Vaccination status in very and extremely preterm infants at the age of 2 years--a nationwide pilot analysis].

Preterm infants are at increased risk of suffering from vaccine preventable diseases. Therefore it is recommended to vaccinate them in time at the same chronological age as full term infants. Several reports have shown that vaccinations of very and extreme low birth weight infants are often delayed but till now there are no data for Germany.

[Long-term prognosis of former very and extremely preterm babies in adulthood in Germany].

Previous studies about the prognosis of former very and extremely small preterm babies (birthweight <1500 g, gestational age <32 weeks) in Germany only reached till puberty. Well known are significant increases of cognitive deficits, cerebral palsy and sensory impairments in correlation with gestational age and compared with term newborns. After a pilot project at the Children's University Hospital in Wuerzburg we collected the data of 291 people from 10 different children's Hospitals in Germany who were born between Jan 1st 1979 and Dec 31st 1986.

[How can child development disorders be recognized in early childhood?].

In the last 10 years beside the well known developmental criterias like turning from back to prone, crawling, standing up, free walking, speaking of the first words and the position-reactions, the exact observation of the spontaneous movements, of handling-planing and the speech development could be detected as more important factors for the examination of development. Certain parameters of explanation of developmental disorders are to differenciate from uncertain and only probably one. Of special interest are the frequent problems like excessive crying, feeding- and sleeping disorders.

Acute flaccid paralysis as initial symptom in 4 patients with novel E1alpha mutations of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex.

We report on 4 boys from 3 families presenting initially in infancy with an acute onset of flaccid tetraparesis and areflexia, resembling Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). However, the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protein was normal, while serum and CSF lactate were elevated. All patients had recurrent similar episodes, usually associated with infections.

The anterior cardiac plexus: an intrinsic neurosecretory site within the stomatogastric nervous system of the crab Cancer productus.

The stomatogastric nervous system (STNS) of decapod crustaceans is modulated by both locally released and circulating substances. In some species, including chelate lobsters and freshwater crayfish, the release zones for hormones are located both intrinsically to and at some distance from the STNS. In other crustaceans, including Brachyuran crabs, the existence of extrinsic sites is well documented.

Tyrosine hydroxylase deficiency causes progressive encephalopathy and dopa-nonresponsive dystonia.

Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) is the key enzyme in the biosynthesis of the catecholamines dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. Recessively inherited deficiency of TH was recently identified and incorporated into recent concepts of genetic dystonias as the cause of recessive Dopa-responsive dystonia or Segawa's syndrome in analogy to dominantly inherited GTP cyclohydrolase I deficiency. We report four patients with TH deficiency and two with GTP cyclohydrolase I deficiency.

Head size and motor performance in children born prematurely.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between head circumference (HC) and motor performance in 6- to 12-yr-old children born prematurely (PRE: birthweight < or = 1500 g, gestational age < or = 32 wk) and in children born at term (CON).

Methods: Thirty-three PRE and 21 CON without an apparent neurological deficit participated in this study. HC was measured on the day of testing and was rated as small HC (SHC, HC more than 1 SD below the 50th percentile of reference data) or as normal HC (NHC).

Congenital myasthenic syndrome with episodic apnea in patients homozygous for a CHAT missense mutation.

Background: The syndrome of congenital myasthenia with episodic apnea (CMS-EA) was previously found to be due to mutations in the choline acetyltransferase gene (CHAT).

Objective: To identify the mutations underlying CMS-EA in a Turkish multiplex family.

Design: Direct sequencing of the CHAT gene.

[Validity of care assessment in disabled and mentally retarded children].

16 children with spastic cerebral palsy and 25 mentally retarded children were assessed via the scales "Self-Care" and "Mobility" of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI). Age-adjusted PEDI scores were compared with the classification according to the three levels of the German statutory nursing insurance. Good correlations and highly significant dependence were found in children with spastic cerebral palsy but no dependence was seen in mentally retarded children.

Bilateral deficit during short-term, high-intensity cycle ergometry in girls and boys.

Peak torque during an isokinetic bilateral knee extension or flexion is usually lower than the summed peak torque of two unilateral contractions, and this phenomenon is designated as bilateral deficit (BD). The objectives of this study were to determine whether a BD also exists for more complex, alternating movements (e.g.

Effective and safe but forgotten: methsuximide in intractable epilepsies in childhood.

The efficacy and safety of methsuximide (MSM) was evaluated in children with intractable epilepsies in a prospective uncontrolled study. MSM was added to the therapeutic regimen of 112 children with intractable epilepsy under inpatient conditions, all of whom were therapeutically refractory to various first-line antiepileptic drugs (AED) or combinations of other AED. Titration of MSM was performed following a uniform protocol.