SCE analysis in children exposed to lead emission from a smelting plant.

The frequency and location of SCE were evaluated in lymphocytes from peripheral blood cultures of 19 children living in a widely contaminated area and showing an increased absorption of lead. In the comparison between the exposed children and a control group living in an uncontaminated area, no significant differences were found in the mean values of SCE frequencies. The distributions of the SCE between chromosomes were proportional to chromosome length in both groups.

[Comparative study of 3 different prophylactic programs in hemophiliac children]. / Studio comparativo su 3 differenti programmi di profilassi in bambini emofilici.

Prophylaxis continues to be an area for discussion in the therapy of the hemophilic child. In fact, standard parameters are still not used in the evaluation of the efficacy of this treatment. At the Milan University Pediatric Clinic we have begun three different prophylactic programs with 52 children with ages ranging from 12 months to 14 years 7 months. We have evaluated the efficacy of these regimes comparing the data obtained in the 12 months following the start of the program with those obtained in the 12 months prior to it. Our data, even though they pertain to a limited number of children, show that continuous prophylaxis is truly efficacious if it is begun early before the onset of an arthopathy. Therapeutic prophylaxis however for the stabilizing of a target joint is usually better accepted by the children and their parents. The high cost of the prophylactic programs can nevertheless be justified by the better quality of life of the patients.

["Follow-up milk": general principles and evaluation of the nutritional status of 100 subjects fed a liquid transitional formula]. / Latti di seguito: principi generali e valutazione dello stato nutrizionale in 100 soggetti alimentati con una formula di transizione liquida.

Many authors have pointed that precocious weaning expose infants to serious risks as hypernutrition, obesity, adverse reactions to foods, hypernatremia, dental caries, emotional problems as anorexia or bulimia, so that actually weaning is delayed after 6th month of age. Going on with the "adapted" formula is a relative nonsense because "adapted" milks have low protein and calcium contents so that they are not adequate to cover estimated and advisable intakes of 4-6 month baby unless feeding unusual higher volumes. On the other side "fresh milk" can not be considered a nutritional "chance", owing its low values of EFA, iron, vitamins, getting worse when fresh milk is diluted. So, recently was born a new milk formula "the follow up milk", on covering nutritional requirement for infants after 4 months of age. Someone is still critical about a follow up milk, also if ESPGAN in 1981 has confirmed its value in the infant feeding. Our work dealed on physical and biochemical nutritional assessment of 100 infants fed a new "liquid follow up formula" (Transilat). Nutritional assessment was performed with the following parameters: daily changes in weight according Fomon standards, plasmatic iron, cholesterol, transferrin, calcium, total proteins, hemoglobin concentration; all data are related to literature values for age. Results show that infants fed (Transilat) are growing well; nutritional data from biochemical point of view discovered any form of minimal or sporadic malnutrition. The follow up milk is a good nutritional "chance" after 4th month of age, instead of fresh cow milk; some infant with clinical problem needing a delayed introduction of cow milk can benefit of follow up milk also in older ages.

[Non-rachitic hypophosphatemic osteopathy]. / Osteopatia ipofosfatemica non rachitica.

We have identified a patient with a condition called Hypophosphatemic Bone Disease (HBD). This disorder of phosphate metabolism is unrecorded by Dent in his final classification of metabolic bone diseases and has been described by Scriver C.R. and coll. Although the condition is in same ways analogous to X-Linked Hyophosphatemia (XLH), there are important differences between the two diseases. For example, there is selective impairment in the tubular reabsorption of phosphate in HBD but the defect is less severe and it is clearly different from that described in XLH. Clinical manifestations of HBD appear in infancy, but the dwarfism and the bone changes are less severe than in XLH at comparable concentrations of plasmatic phosphorus in the two diseases. While in both conditions there is osteomalacia of endostal trabecular bone, only in XLH is florid rickets present, affecting the epiphyses and compromising linear growth. The phosphaturic response to PTH infusion is abnormal in qualitative aspects, but it is present in HBD, and this differs considerably from that described in XLH. The treatment with oral load of phosphates and 1,25(OH)2D3 in every patient with HBD, and so in our patient, is accompanied by increase in serum phosphorus, with improved tubular reabsorption of phosphate anion and a fall of hydrossiprolinuria with bone healing; this combination of responses is not present in XLH.

[Infantile angiodysplasias: diagnosis and therapy]. / Le angiodisplasie infantili: diagnosi e terapia.

Three cases of angiodysplasias are reported. There are some problems still open concerning diagnostic and therapeutic approach. In this paper we try to correlate localisation, time of onset, size, aspect, histological features, evolution, side effects and hemodynamic problems with diagnosis, prognosis and therapy of childhood angiodysplasias mainly concerning cavernous, intracranial, visceral and lymphatic angiomas.

Prophylactic treatment of the central nervous system in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. CT findings in 45 children off therapy.

45 children with ALL treated with intrathecal Methotrexate and radiation therapy, all in hematologic remission, have been examined with brain CT at intervals varying from 3 to 6 years after completion of CNS prophylaxis. Abnormalities were detected in 20% of the children; the main findings were: calcifications within the brain parenchyma in 3 patients; enlargement of the ventricular system and/or sulci in 8. The 3 patients with calcifications had seizures during or after treatment whereas those with dilatation of the ventricular system or sulci presented no neurological signs.