Anti-lysoganglioside and other anti-neuronal autoantibodies in post-treatment Lyme Disease and Erythema Migrans after repeat infection.

Background: Molecular mimicry targeting neural tissue has been reported after () infection. Herein, we investigate whether antineuronal autoantibodies are increased and whether antibody-mediated signaling of neuronal cells is elevated in a cohort of symptomatic adults with a history of Lyme Disease (LD).

Methods: Participants (n ​= ​179) included 24 with recent Erythema Migrans (EM) without prior LD, 8 with recent EM and prior LD (EM ​+ ​prior LD), 119 with persistent post-treatment LD symptoms (PTLS), and 28 seronegative endemic controls with no prior LD history.

A Community Study of Antibodies among Individuals with Prior Lyme Disease in Endemic Areas.

The objective was to examine the prevalence of antibodies among symptomatic individuals with recent and past Lyme disease in endemic communities using standard assays and novel assays employing next-generation antigenic substrates. Single- and two-tiered algorithms included different anti- ELISAs and immunoblots. Antibody prevalence was examined in sera from 32 individuals with recent erythema migrans (EM), 335 individuals with persistent symptoms following treatment for Lyme disease (PTLS), and 41 community controls without a history of Lyme disease.

Childhood diet, overweight, and CVD risk factors: the Healthy Start project.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors can be identified in children and tracked over time. We studied 519 children (mean age, 3.9 years) and reevaluated CVD risk factors 4 years later.

Weight control among obese adolescents: a pilot study.

Objective: The present study evaluated weight loss and compliance outcomes for overweight adolescents assigned to one of two dietary interventions differing in the type of snacks allowed.

Methods: The study was a 12-week, controlled clinical trial, among otherwise healthy but overweight (body mass index >or=95th percentile) 11-year-old to 15-year-old girls who were randomly assigned to either a 1,500 kcal/day free-snack program or a 1,500 kcal/day restricted-snack program. All subjects were counseled to consume three servings of dairy products per day, and were provided with a 500 mg calcium supplement as well.

Body size and cardiovascular risk factors in a preschool population.

Data on weight, height, blood pressure, and blood lipids were obtained for 1215 children entering New York Head Start preschools from 1995-1997. In this population, 17% were overweight and 15% were obese; the risk was greatest in Hispanic children. Overall, 13% had high blood pressure.

Cardiovascular risk reduction in preschool children: the "Healthy Start" project.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of a multicomponent cardiovascular health intervention ("Healthy Start") which included a food service modification in a largely minority Head Start preschool population. The primary outcome measure was the change in serum cholesterol from the beginning to the end of the school year.

Methods: Nine Head Start centers in Upstate N.

"Healthy-start": outcome of an intervention to promote a heart healthy diet in preschool children.

Objective: We evaluated the effects of a preschool nutrition education and food service intervention "Healthy Start," on two-to-five-year-old children in nine Head Start Centers in upstate NY. The primary objective was to reduce the saturated fat (sat-fat) content of preschool meals to <10% daily energy (E) and to reduce consumption of sat-fat by preschoolers to <10% E.

Methods: Six centers were assigned to the food service intervention and three to control condition.

Plant stanol ester and bran fiber in childhood: effects on lipids, stool weight and stool frequency in preschool children.

Objectives: The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of plant stanol esters and bran fiber on lipids, stool weight and stool frequency in preschool children.

Methods: The present study was a 13 week open cross-over study designed to evaluate the effects of plant stanol ester in healthy two to five year old preschool children. After a one week lead-in, eligible children were randomly assigned to begin with either Diet Phase A (plant stanol ester) or Phase B (wheat bran fiber).

Randomized double-blind comparison of single high-dose ondansetron and multiple standard-dose ondansetron in chemotherapy-naive pediatric oncology patients.

This prospective, double-blind, randomized study compares the antiemetic efficacy of an equivalent dose of ondansetron administered as a single high dose or as multiple standard doses in pediatric oncology patients. Thirty-one chemotherapy-naive patients were randomized at diagnosis to receive either single high-dose ondansetron (0.6 mg/kg, maximum dose 32 mg) or multiple standard-dose ondansetron (0.

Developing a computer-assisted health knowledge quiz for preschool children.

The project evaluated the reliability of a computer-assisted health education knowledge quiz, a multiple-choice picture identification assessment tool for nutrition and health-related knowledge in preschool age children. Pearson's product moment correlation coefficients were computed to assess overall and componential stability between test/retest scores of 51 children (mean age 3.6 years) enrolled in a Head Start preschool center.

Maternal Lyme disease and congenital heart disease: A case-control study in an endemic area.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether maternal Lyme disease increases the risk of congenital heart defect.

Study Design: This retrospective case-control study was carried out at a medical center in a suburban area where Lyme disease is endemic. Case patients comprised 796 children with a diagnosis of congenital cardiac anomaly.

Healthy Start: a comprehensive health education program for preschool children.

Background: Healthy Start is a 3-year demonstration and education research project designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a multidimensional cardiovascular (CV) risk reduction intervention in preschool centers over a 3-year period of time.

Methods: Two primary interventions are employed. The first is the preschool food service intervention program designed to reduce the total fat in preschool meals and snacks to less than 30% of calories and reduce the saturated fat to less than 10% of calories.

Maternal Lyme disease and congenital malformations: a cord blood serosurvey in endemic and control areas.

This report describes a cohort study of over 5000 infants and their mothers who participated in a cord blood serosurvey designed to examine the relationship between maternal exposure to Lyme disease and adverse pregnancy outcome. Based on serology and reported clinical history, mothers of infants in an endemic hospital cohort are 5 to 20 times more likely to have been exposed to B. burgdorferi as compared with mothers of infants in a control hospital cohort.

Lyme disease and pregnancy outcome: a prospective study of two thousand prenatal patients.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine if prenatal exposure to Lyme disease was associated with an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcome.

Study Design: Approximately 2000 Westchester County, New York, women completed questionnaires and had sera tested for antibody to Borrelia burgdorferi at their first prenatal visit and at delivery. Fetal death, birth weight, length of gestation at delivery, and congenital malformations were examined in relation to maternal Lyme disease exposure before and during pregnancy.

Growth of the great vessels in the normal human fetus and in the fetus with cardiac defects.

Background: There is a paucity of quantitative anatomic data regarding human great vessel development that could be useful as a reference for fetal echocardiographers who must distinguish abnormal from normal cardiac development at early stages.

Methods And Results: To determine normal growth patterns, we plotted the diameters of the aortic and pulmonary valves, ductus arteriosus, aortic isthmus, and descending aorta in 274 autopsy specimens from nonselected spontaneous abortuses of normal karyotype. There was a linear increase in the diameters of these structures within the developmental period studied (10-26 weeks).

Lyme disease in childhood: clinical and epidemiologic features of ninety cases.

In 1982 and 1983 practicing pediatricians in a Lyme disease-endemic county, reported 90 cases of Lyme disease among children 19 years of age and younger (median age, 9 years). Three-fourths of the children had initial symptom onset in the summer months, with peak incidence in July. Infection occurred twice as often in boys than in girls, and tick bites were recalled by less than half (49%) of the children or parents.

Gestational vaginal bleeding and pregnancy outcome.

The relation between vaginal bleeding and pregnancy outcome was examined in a prospective study of 3,531 women seeking prenatal care in New York City from 1975 through 1985. Women were interviewed in the second trimester or later and were followed up at delivery. The frequency of vaginal bleeding during pregnancy was 22%.

Spermicide use and pregnancy outcome.

The relation between periconceptional vaginal spermicide use and sex ratio at birth, birthweight, and the frequency of congenital anomalies was examined in a cohort of 2,712 New York City obstetric patients, 149 of whom (5.5 per cent) became pregnant while using spermicides or had used spermicides before and after conception. Periconceptional spermicide use was not associated with any important variation in the expected sex ratio at birth, nor with major or minor congenital anomalies.

First-trimester vaginal bleeding and the loss of chromosomally normal and abnormal conceptions.

The frequency of first-trimester vaginal bleeding among 670 women with chromosomally normal fetal losses and 219 women with chromosomally abnormal losses was compared with that among 3089 women delivered at term. Vaginal bleeding early in gestation was predictive of pregnancy outcome in that moderate or heavy bleeding was associated with a fourfold risk of the loss of either chromosomally normal or abnormal conceptions. Spotting or slight bleeding was associated with a 2.

Characteristics of women with recurrent spontaneous abortions and women with favorable reproductive histories.

Women with a history of recurrent spontaneous abortions (repeaters) are compared with women who have had live births and no spontaneous abortions (multiparae) and women who have had live births and only one spontaneous abortion (sporadics) to identify characteristics of the women and their abortuses that might predict subsequent fetal loss. A number of risk factors for recurrent spontaneous abortion have been identified: the loss of a chromosomally normal conception, loss after the first trimester of pregnancy, a delay in conceiving prior to the study pregnancy, a diagnosis of cervical incompetence, and a history of very low birthweight deliveries. The odds ratios associated with being a repeater vary from 1.

Vaginal spermicides and spontaneous abortion of known karyotype.

The relationship between spermicide use and spontaneous abortion was examined in a New York City case-control study carried out during 1974-1982. In a series of matched sample analyses, case groups categorized by karyotype of the abortus were compared to a control group of prenatal patients with respect to spermicide use. Spermicide use was defined in terms of proximity to the date of conception of the study pregnancy and duration of the episode of use most recent to the study pregnancy.

Significance of cardiac defects in the developing fetus: a study of spontaneous abortuses.

We investigated the impact of heart defects on the developing human fetus by examining 412 hearts from consecutive spontaneous abortuses. In each case, the cardiac morphology was correlated with the autopsy findings and the karyotype (unavailable in 115 hearts not successfully cultured). Of the 412 hearts, 10 (2.