[Poisoning in small children--assessing the incidence and intervention. II. What is effective in prevention?].

A study was started a) to assess the incidence self-poisoning in pre-school children and b) to evaluate the impact of an emergency set containing activated carbon and an antifoam. Cooperation was established with the regional legal sickness funds, the regional physician association, and two pharmaceutical companies. Incidence and extent of unintentional self-poisoning among pre-school children are to be determined.

Clinical course and outcome in class IC antiarrhythmic overdose.

120 cases of class IC antiarrhythmic overdose, including propafenone, flecainide, ajmaline and prajmaline overdose, were evaluated with respect to clinical course, therapy and outcome. Whereas drug overdose in general has an overall mortality of less than 1%, intoxication with antiarrhythmic drugs of class IC was associated with a mean mortality of 22.5%.

Risk factors for the development of retinopathy in children and adolescents with type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus.

In our preceding paper, the prevalence and development of retinopathy in 231 Type 1 diabetic children and adolescents were reported to be associated with the duration of diabetes and its age at onset. This paper analyses the relationships between the development of retinopathy and the following factors: age, sex, puberty, blood pressure, insulin dosage, HLA antigens, long-term glycaemic control, and serum cholesterol and triglycerides. All these variables were longitudinally evaluated in a cohort of 322 insulin-dependent patients aged 16.

[Poisoning by hypochlorite-containing disinfectants. A retrospective analysis of 594 cases of poisoning].

Hypochlorite-containing disinfectants or bleaching fluids, if inhaled, may lead to life-threatening poisoning (56% of moderately severe cases, 5% of severe cases) through the immediate liberation of chlorine gas, if they are used together with another cleansing fluid which is very acid. A rough estimate suggests that there must be about 700 cases of such poisonings per year in the Federal Republic of Germany. The characteristic symptom is a respiratory distress syndrome when the liberated chlorine gas is inhaled.