[Hirschsprung disease. Discussion of a disease picture also relevant to neonatology].

The clinical disease pattern of an "acute abdomen" is by no means rare in newborn and very young infants and always signals an emergency situation. Besides inflammatory causes, congenital anomalies are among the most prominent reasons responsible for this condition. The example of 3 own patients serves to illustrate the disease pattern of Hirschsprung's disease, which is discussed with special reference to neonatology.

[Fatal course of B-streptococcal infection in early infancy].

We report on a fatal case of "late onset" -sepsis by B-streptococcus in a seven weeks olk suckling. B-Streptococcus is considered to be a typical strain of early stage neonatal sepsis that is connected with foudroyant progress and high letality. As in our case the outcome is decisively determined by early diagnosis and timely beginning therapy for the strain can still be controlled effectively.

Computerized rapid analysis of pulmonary function test: use of a least mean squares correlation for interpretation of data.

Although systems for automated calculation and interpretation of screening pulmonary function tests (PFT) have been discussed by previous investigators, these systems are often unavailable to other users, require large or hybrid computers, or are difficult to modify. The use of a branching decision tree for PFT interpretation may also limit the number of correlations possible and make revision of the program difficult because changes in the proximal branches of the tree require a rewriting of the entire distal program. We have developed a system based on a minicomputer which uses a least mean squares analysis for rapidly analyzing the patient's PFT data.

Photon-counting polarizing radiometer.

Photon counting is used in this instrument to obtain high precision in the measurement of the intensity, degree of polarization, and orientation of the plane of polarization of light in the natural environment. The dual-channel configuration, with four interference filters in each channel, provides the possibility of measurements in eight narrow spectral intervals in the wavelength range 0.32-0.