ABSTRACT
Pediatric commitment to competitive sports is on the rise. Previous reports of the incidence of exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB) have investigated high school, college, and Olympic athletes in traditional sports. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of EIB in competitive figure skating, a high-intensity, cold-weather sport performed by young athletes. To investigate the incidence of EIB in skaters, 100 competitive skaters from five Mid-Atlantic rinks completed rinkside pulmonary function tests. Results showed an overall incidence of 30%, signaling the need for education and screening for EIB in youth participating in physically demanding, cold-weather sports.
Subject(s)
Asthma, Exercise-Induced/epidemiology , Skating , Adolescent , Adult , Asthma, Exercise-Induced/diagnosis , Child , Humans , Incidence , Respiratory Function Tests , United States/epidemiologySubject(s)
Asthma/etiology , Health Education , Patient Care Team , Asthma/prevention & control , HumansSubject(s)
Granuloma/pathology , Lung Diseases/pathology , Lung/pathology , Female , Humans , Lung/blood supply , Middle Aged , Necrosis , Vasculitis/pathologyABSTRACT
Use of fiberoptic bronchoscopy to acquire pulmonary secretions has been shown to yield unreliable bacterial cultures. However, microscopic examination of such material has received little attention. In this study, 69 bronchoscopies were evaluated. Clinical assessment of the presence of a lower respiratory tract infection was made and cultures obtained. In addition, each specimen was analyzed with a Gram-stained smear. The Gram-stained smears of these specimens correlated extremely well with the clinical assessment. In 67 of the 69 cases, bronchoscopy yielded material whose Gram-stained smear accurately reflected the presence or absence of a pyogenic infection. In patients with lower respiratory tract infections, the smear also predicted the likely category of the causative organism. This study suggests that microscopic examination of lower respiratory tract secretions helps make fiberoptic bronchoscopy a potentially useful alternative in the evaluation of bacterial lung infections.
Subject(s)
Bacterial Infections/diagnosis , Bronchoscopes , Lung Diseases/diagnosis , Lung/metabolism , Respiratory Tract Infections/diagnosis , Fiber Optic Technology , Humans , Lung/microbiology , Lung Abscess/microbiology , Pneumonia/microbiology , Sputum/microbiology , Staining and Labeling , Suppuration/microbiologyABSTRACT
In a search for etiologic leads to blood-vessel neoplasms, we examined 111 death certificates of U.S. children who died from 1960 to 1968 of angiosarcoma, hemangioendothelioma, and hemangiopericytoma and 127 medical records of similar cases from 12 institutes. The available data provided no leads to environmental agents (vinyl chloride, thorotrast, arsenic) that can produce vascular liver tumors in adults, but one infant, who died from a hepatic tumor, lived within a mile of an industrial source of polyvinyl chloride. About half of the children with hepatic hemangioendotheliomas had associated skin hemangiomas, which may aid in the differential diagnosis of liver tumors in infancy. Hepatic hemangioendotheliomas also predominated in girls, a possible clue to the origin of the tumor. A familial influence was suggested by one sibling aggregation of cutaneous hemangioendotheliomas.
Subject(s)
Hemangioendothelioma , Hemangiopericytoma , Hemangiosarcoma , Neoplasms , Adolescent , Adult , Age Factors , Child , Child, Preschool , Environmental Exposure , Environmental Pollution , Female , Hemangioendothelioma/epidemiology , Hemangioendothelioma/etiology , Hemangiopericytoma/epidemiology , Hemangiopericytoma/etiology , Hemangiosarcoma/epidemiology , Hemangiosarcoma/etiology , Humans , Infant , Male , Neoplasms/epidemiology , Neoplasms/etiology , Neoplasms/genetics , Retrospective Studies , Sex Factors , United StatesABSTRACT
Despite many similarities to colorectal cancer in adults, the rare childhood form has some peculiarities. Childhood mortality is greater among Negroes than Caucasians, particularly in boys, reflecting the rising incidence of this tumor in the young Negro population. In addition, the percentage of childhood cases with precancerous diseases (polyposis, colitis) appears greater than in adults. Most striking is the high percentage of mucin-producing tumors in young people with colorectal cancer. The mucoid tumors tend to occur after the age of 10 years, whereas younger children are more likely to develop non-mucoid carcinoma in an adenomatous polyp.
