DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT: MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE VIRAL BRONCHIOLITIS IN INFANCY

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Howell Wright ◽  
Marc O. Beem

ACUTE bronchiolitis (capillary bronchitis, obstructive emphysema) is one of the common afflictions of the lower respiratory passages of infants. Although infection has long been accepted as the primary inciting factor, investigators (with the exception of Sell who believes H. influenzae to be responsible) have not found bacterial pathogens in consistent association with the syndrome. By exclusion, it has been assumed that most cases are precipitated by a viral infection. During the past decade this view has been substantiated by the application of new techniques to the study of respiratory viruses. Surveys of winter and spring epidemics of bronchiolitis in several urban centers have demonstrated a very significant portion of the cases to be associated with respiratory virus infection, most commonly the respiratory syncytial virus (RS), but in a minor number of instances influenza B or the parainfluenza agents. To date, no rapid laboratory proof of viral etiology is available, nor have any of the antiviral substances been found to be effective in treatment. Consequently, the welfare of the individual infant depends upon his physician's acumen in arriving at a correct clinical diagnosis and in utilizing nonspecific measures to combat the disturbances of his respiratory physiology. DIAGNOSIS The first requisite of proper management is an accurate diagnosis. Table I lists other causes of infantile dyspnea which may cause confusion. Exclusion of these entities depends upon a careful history and physical examination, a chest roentgenogram, and a few well-chosen laboratory tests. The most frequent differential problem is the distinction among viral bronchiolitis, asthmatic bronchitis, and bacterial infection of the lower respiratory passages.

1961 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Holliday

1. Many of the Ustilaginales, or smut fungi, appear to have the qualities necessary for the application of modern techniques of microbial genetics.Ustilago maydisis considered the most suitable species.2. Investigations of the mating system confirm reports that the production of diploid brandspores in the host is controlled by alleles at two loci.3. Genetic markers were obtained by inducing mutations in a wild-type strain with ultra-violet light. Of 100 biochemical mutants which were isolated, the growth requirements of 94 were identified. Thirty of these were used in genetic tests.4. The compact growth of colonies on artificial media allowed new techniques to be developed by means of which large samples of progeny could be isolated and identified easily. The analysis of brandspore colonies consisting of the products of single meiotic divisions is the quickest method for detecting linkage, but its accurate measurement appears to be achieved by examining the individual members of tetrads.5. Linkage was detected relatively rarely, but eight markers, including theamating-type locus, were assigned to one or other of two linkage groups. Although recombination values were not always determined accurately owing to irregular basidiospore germination, the auxotrophic markers in each group could be mapped in a linear order. Since no indication of other linkage groups was obtained, the genetic evidence is so far consistent with cytological reports that the basic haploid chromosome number is two in the smut fungi.6. Three linked markers were used to investigate chromatid interference by tetrad analysis. None was detected in a total of eighteen double exchanges.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-62
Author(s):  
Sergio Stagno ◽  
Linda L. Pifer ◽  
Walter T. Hughes ◽  
Dana M. Brasfield ◽  
Ralph E. Tiller

Of 67 infants enrolled in a prospective study of infant pneumonia ten (14%) had evidence of Pneumocystis carinii infection. Diagnosis was achieved by demonstrating circulating P carinii antigens by counterimmunoelectrophoresis in all ten cases and by histopathology in the only infant who underwent an open lung biopsy. Antigenemia did not occur in 64 control infants (P = .003), nor in 57 patients of similar age who were hospitalized with pneumonitis due to Chlamydia trachomatis, respiratory syncytial virus, cytomegalovirus, adenovirus, and influenza A and influenza B viruses. None of the ten infants with P carinii pneumonitis had evidence of a primary immunodeficiency nor had any received immunosuppressive medication. These patients were hospitalized at a mean age of 6 weeks (range 2 to 12) and their illness was characterized by its afebrile course, presentation in crisis with severe respiratory distress, apnea, tachypnea, cough, increased IgM, and bilateral pulmonary infiltrates with hyperaeration. The clinical features of P carinii pneumonitis were indistinguishable from those of C trachomatis and cytomegalovirus pneumonia. Treatment with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole was associated with rapid disappearance of circulating antigens; however, the small number of patients studied did not permit an analysis of its clinical efficacy. These results indicate that P carinii singly or in combination with other infectious agents may be an important cause of pneumonitis in young, immunocompetent infants with no underlying illnesses.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (10) ◽  
pp. 2061-2078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sid-Ahmed Boukabara ◽  
Kayo Ide ◽  
Yan Zhou ◽  
Narges Shahroudi ◽  
Ross N. Hoffman ◽  
...  

AbstractObserving system simulation experiments (OSSEs) are used to simulate and assess the impacts of new observing systems planned for the future or the impacts of adopting new techniques for exploiting data or for forecasting. This study focuses on the impacts of satellite data on global numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems. Since OSSEs are based on simulations of nature and observations, reliable results require that the OSSE system be validated. This validation involves cycles of assessment and calibration of the individual system components, as well as the complete system, with the end goal of reproducing the behavior of real-data observing system experiments (OSEs). This study investigates the accuracy of the calibration of an OSSE system—here, the Community Global OSSE Package (CGOP) system—before any explicit tuning has been performed by performing an intercomparison of the OSSE summary assessment metrics (SAMs) with those obtained from parallel real-data OSEs. The main conclusion reached in this study is that, based on the SAMs, the CGOP is able to reproduce aspects of the analysis and forecast performance of parallel OSEs despite the simplifications employed in the OSSEs. This conclusion holds even when the SAMs are stratified by various subsets (the tropics only, temperature only, etc.).


Author(s):  
Paul Stamm ◽  
Ingo Sagoschen ◽  
Kerstin Weise ◽  
Bodo Plachter ◽  
Thomas Münzel ◽  
...  

AbstractThe severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has forced the implementation of unprecedented public health measures strategies which might also have a significant impact on the spreading of other viral pathogens such as influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) . The present study compares the incidences of the most relevant respiratory viruses before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in emergency room patients. We analyzed the results of in total 14,946 polymerase chain reaction point-of-care tests (POCT-PCR) for Influenza A, Influenza B, RSV and SARS-CoV-2 in an adult and a pediatric emergency room between December 1, 2018 and March 31, 2021. Despite a fivefold increase in the number of tests performed, the positivity rate for Influenza A dropped from 19.32% (165 positives of 854 tests in 2018/19), 14.57% (149 positives of 1023 in 2019–20) to 0% (0 positives of 4915 tests) in 2020/21. In analogy, the positivity rate for Influenza B and RSV dropped from 0.35 to 1.47%, respectively, 10.65–21.08% to 0% for both in 2020/21. The positivity rate for SARS-CoV2 reached 9.74% (110 of 1129 tests performed) during the so-called second wave in December 2020. Compared to the two previous years, seasonal influenza and RSV incidence was eliminated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Corona-related measures and human behavior patterns could lead to a significant decline or even complete suppression of other respiratory viruses such as influenza and RSV.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 876-877
Author(s):  
Herman Harris

The Comprehensive Sickle Cell Centers were established in 1972 to test, educate, counsel, and research sickle cell anemia and related hemoglobinopathies. Standards and protocols for testing, education, and research were readily established because similar procedures and methods were already in operation at the institutions where the centers were located. The most difficult and still the most controversial program to provide is counseling. It became evident, early, that there is no universally accepted method for informing carriers of abnormal Hb S about their results. Centers located in large urban areas with a limited testing radius do not face the same problems as centers located in rural areas where the testing radius may cover an entire state or several states. Individual, or one-on-one, counseling of persons with trait results appears to be successful for urban centers where the individual may be called to the center and given information. But, in a rural setting, it is not feasible for the center to ask a person to travel 350 miles to be told he or she has nothing to worry about. And it is not cost-effective to send a caseworker 350 miles to say the same thing. It must, therefore, be concluded that each agency or center must adopt counseling methods that meet its specific needs. Each program must be flexible, imaginative, and creative and must successfully and accurately deliver information about being a carrier for the sickle gene or other hemoglobinopathy and its implication and significance for patients and their future offspring. To do this, we must first look at the problems facing us.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 498-522
Author(s):  
Megan C Kurlychek

New York State is one of only two states in the nation that processes all 16- and 17-year-old defendants as adults. Contrary to this seemingly punitive stance, the state also maintains a Youthful Offender Statute that requires mitigated punishments for youths up to their 19th birthday upon court designation of youthful offender status. This study empirically examines the individual and combined impact of the social status of being a “minor” and the legally awarded status of being designated a youthful offender, upon adult court sentencing decisions framing the discussion within broader conceptualizations of youthfulness, culpability, and punishment. Utilizing a population of all youths ages 16–21 whose cases were disposed in New York between 2000 and 2006, this study finds the legally defined status of youthful offender to provide much greater mitigation at sentencing than the more general social status of being a minor. Findings are discussed as they relate to categorical and individualized assessments of culpability. In addition, as the study finds individualized assessments of culpability to be related to factors such as gender and race, broader implications for the role of court assigned statuses and mitigation of punishment are offered.


1988 ◽  
Vol 34 (11) ◽  
pp. 2235-2238 ◽  
Author(s):  
L L Yung-Jato ◽  
P R Durie ◽  
S J Soldin

Abstract This is a high-performance liquid-chromatographic method for measuring p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) and its metabolites in plasma or serum. Samples are deproteinized, then extracted with organic solvents before chromatography. For quantification, the peak height of the individual compound is compared with that of the internal standard. Analytical recoveries ranged from 41% to 100%, depending on the compound studied. Comparison of patients' samples after oral administration of either N-benzoyl-L-tyrosyl-p-aminobenzoic acid or free PABA revealed that PABA is extensively metabolized and conjugated to either p-acetamidobenzoic acid, p-aminohippuric acid, or p-acetamidohippuric acid. PABA concentrations in serum as measured with the Bratton-Marshall ultraviolet spectrophotometric procedure would appear predominantly to reflect measurements of metabolites, with only a minor contribution from PABA itself.


Slavic Review ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanni Kotsonis

From the 1860s to 1917, direct taxation provides a window onto the paradoxes of reform in late imperial Russia. The new systems of assessment that culminated in the income tax of 1916 aimed to individualize government in a regime still ordered by legal estate and collective identity; to recognize the autonomy of the individual while disassembling and reintegrating the person by way of comprehensive assessment; and to promote a sense of citizenship, participation, and individual responsibility while still defending autocracy. Yanni Kotsonis suggests that these tensions were borrowed, along with the new techniques of taxation and of government, from European and transatlantic practice, but Kotsonis also locates the distinctiveness of the Russian case in the historical context and the set of ideological premises into which the practices were introduced.


Social Forces ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Pike

Abstract In recent decades, qualitative research from across sub-Saharan Africa has shown how young men are often unable to marry because they lack wealth and a stable livelihood. With survey data, researchers have begun to study how men’s economic circumstances are related to when they marry in the continent’s capitals and larger urban centers. However, our understanding of these dynamics outside of large cities remains limited. Drawing on longitudinal survey data, this paper examines how men’s economic standing, both at the individual and household level, relates to their marriage timing in rural and semi-urban communities in the Salima district of Malawi. The findings show that men who have higher earnings, work in agriculture, and come from a household that sold cash crops were more likely to marry. In contrast, students as well as men from households owning a large amount of land were substantially less likely to marry. Additionally, men living in the semi-urban communities were around half as likely to marry as their rural counterparts. This negative association is largely explained by the greater proportion of men who are students in towns and trading centers and also the relatively less agricultural nature of these communities. These findings show the value of considering both individual and family characteristics in studies of marriage timing and also suggest that as sub-Saharan Africa urbanizes, the age of marriage for men will likely rise.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen A. Stellrecht ◽  
Jesse L. Cimino ◽  
Vincente P. Maceira

ABSTRACT Nucleic acid amplification tests, such as PCR, are the method of choice for respiratory virus testing, due to their superior diagnostic accuracy and fast turnaround time. The Panther Fusion (Fusion; Hologic) system has an array of highly sensitive in vitro diagnostic (IVD) real-time PCR assays for respiratory viruses, including an assay for influenza A (FluA) virus, influenza B (FluB) virus, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (FFABR assay). The Fusion system has Open Access functionality to perform laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) alongside IVD assays. We developed two LDTs for FluA virus strain typing on the Panther Fusion instrument, enabling side-by-side testing with the FFABR assay. The LDT-FAST assay uses proprietary primers and probes designed by Hologic for the Prodesse ProFAST+ (PFAST) assay. The exWHO-FAST assay is an expanded redesign of the WHO-recommended reverse transcriptase PCRs (RT-PCRs). To evaluate the performance of these two LDTs, 110 FluA virus-positive samples were tested. Of these, 104 had been subtyped previously; 54 were H3, 46 were 09H1, and 4 were fsH1. All were appropriately subtyped by both LDTs. Of the untyped FluA virus samples, three were subtyped as H3 by both LDTs and two were subtyped as H3 by the LDT-FAST assay only. The sample not subtyped by either LDT was retested with the FFABR assay and was now negative. Limit-of-detection (LOD) analyses were performed with five FluA virus strains. The LDT-FAST LODs were similar to the FFABR assay LODs, while the exWHO-FAST LODs were higher for two H3N2 strains, findings that were explained by analysis of primer/probe homology. In conclusion, either FluA virus typing assay would be a valuable complement to the Panther Fusion respiratory menu given the performance of these LDTs, the system’s full automation, and the ability to split eluates for both IVD and LDT testing.


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