Risk Factors of Nosocomial Rotavirus Infections in Children / 소아과

PURPOSE: Rotavirus is one of the most important causes of nosocomial infections among children. The aim of this study is to determine the risk of nosocomial rotavirus infections and to evaluate the effectiveness of breast-feeding and probiotics in the prevention of nosocomial rotavirus infections. METHODS: This study was carried out on admitted children without diarrhea between March 1, 2003 and February 29, 2004. Three hundred ninety patients aged 4 days to 13 years during this study were available. We examined the feces of all children for rotavirus by latex agglutination on admission, during hospital, and after discharge, to see whether they developed diarrhea or not. RESULTS: Nosocomial rotavirus infections was significantly increased with children under 12 months of age(P=0.008). The monthly attack rate was great between December and March(P=0.046). Prolonged hospital stay was associated with an increased attack rate of nosocomial rotavirus infections (P=0.003). The risk of nosocomial rotavirus infections was not associated with the number of roommates and whether or not they were breast-fed or fed on probiotics. CONCLUSION: Nosocomial rotavirus infections are significantly more likely to occur in children under 12 months of age, admitted between December and March, and with prolonged hospital stays. Prompt identification and isolation of children with nosocomial rotavirus infections, even without diarrhea, may decrease rates of nosocomial rotavirus infections.

The Clinical Usefulness of Serum Aminotransferase Activities for Predicting Fatty Liver in Obese Children / 대한소아소화기영양학회지

PURPOSE: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been recognized as an important childhood liver disease, especially where the prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing. The purpose of this study is to clarify the usefulness of elevated serum aminotransferase activities and their ratio for predicting the presence of fatty liver and its severity in obese children. METHODS: Forty-four children (M/F 29/15, age 4 to 16 years) with obesity (weight excess>20%) were analyzed retrospectively with medical records based on degree of obesity, bioelectrical impedence, serum aminotransferase activities, lipid profiles and ultrasonography. RESULTS: 1) Ultrasonography was carried out in 34 cases. Elevated serum ALT was found in 89.7% (26/29) of the patients diagnosed as fatty liver by ultrasonography and decreased AST/ALT ratio (45 IU/L) or decreased AST/ALT ratio (0.05). 3) There was a significant correlation between total cholesterol, triglyceride and fatty liver (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Serum ALT activity and AST/ALT ratio were useful to predict the presence of fatty liver diagnosed by ultrasonography in obese children, whereas they were not useful to predict the degree of fatty liver. Therefore, to prevent fatty liver progressing to advanced liver disease, it is necessary to manage and monitor the obese children continuously, especially those who have predicting factors of fatty liver.

Unbalanced Translocations of Chromosome 2 and Chromosome 20 in a Two-Generation Family

An unbalanced translocation is frequently the result of inheritance of an unbalanced haploid set from a parent with a balanced translocation. Families in which one parent is a balanced translocation carrier fall into the following classes : Those in which none of the possible abnormal offsprings is viable; Those in which one type of offspring, usually the one with the smaller deletion, is born alive; Those in which two types of abnormal offspring are viable. We report a neonate whose karyotype was 46,XX,der(2)t(2;7)(q21;p21.2),der(20)t(2;20)(q21;p13). She was small for her gestational age and had multiple anomalies such as exophthalmos, corneal opacity, short neck, tongue tie, clinodactyly, atrial septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus and ventriculomegaly. Moreover, her mother's karyotype was 46,XX,der(2)t(2;7)(q21;p21.2),del(16)(q22.1),der(20)t(2;20)(q21;p13) but her father had normal karyotype. The same derivative chrosomes were found between mother and her infant, except for del(16)(q22.1) in her mother and these same unbalanced translocations in a two-generation family are extremely rare.