New postnatal growth grids for very low birth weight infants.

OBJECTIVE: To generate contemporary postnatal growth curves for hospitalized very low birth weight infants. DESIGN: Retrospective survey. SETTING: Tertiary intensive care nursery. PATIENTS: All surviving singleton, appropriate-for-gestational age infants with birth weight < or = 1500 g, born January 1, 1987, to May 31, 1991, who did not develop necrotizing enterocolitis (N = 205). MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Macronutrient intakes and body weights were recorded daily, with crown-heel length and occipital-frontal head circumference recorded weekly up to 105 days of age or hospital discharge, whichever occurred first. Growth curves were generated for four birth weight ranges: 501 through 750, 751 through 1000, 1001 through 1250, and 1251 through 1500 g. Compared to previously published growth curves, the current infants regained birth weight more quickly and exhibited larger average daily weight gains. These differences were most apparent in infants of lowest birth weight. CONCLUSIONS: The "premature growth grid" constructed by Dancis et al more than 40 years ago may no longer be a useful standard of early postnatal growth for present-day very low birth weight, appropriate-for-gestational-age infants. The new weight curves are a more accurate reflection of current in-hospital growth trends, especially for infants weighing < or = 1000 g at birth.

Thermal radiation properties and thermal conductivity of lunar material.

The thermal radiation properties were measured for lunar fines and chips from three different lunar rocks. Measurements for the fines were made at atmospheric pressure and at a pressure of 10(-5) torr or lower. The directional reflectance was obtained over a wavelength range of 0.5 to 2.0 microns for angles of incidence up to 60 degrees. The bidirectional reflectance-the distribution of reflected light-was measured for white light angles of illumination up to 60 degrees. The thermal conductivity was measured over a temperature range 200 to 400 degrees K under vacuum conditions.

Lunar receiving laboratory.

The Lunar Receiving Laboratory will be the permanent depository of a portion of the collection of lunar samples; it will safeguard the collection, providing continuing security and ensuring scientific integrity. In carrying out the time-dependent experiments and continuing functions of the laboratory, NASA will rely on visiting expert scientists supplementing a relatively small resident staff; outside scientists will be relied upon for most investigations and detailed analyses of samples. It is believed that the designed procedures and facilities provided will ensure the maximum scientific return from the Apollo Program in the way of information from lunar samples.

Hemolytic anemia induced by sulfoxone therapy, with investigations into the mechanisms of its production / ?

A case report is presented of a patient in whom clinical evidence of hemolytic anemia with methemoglobinemia developed upon increasing the dosage of sulfoxone which he was receiving for Hansen's disease. Administration of the drug was withdrawn for six weeks, after which studies were made with the use of radioactive iron to demosntrate the hemolytic effect of sulfoxone. By means of tagging cells of a single age group, it was shown that the suceptibility to hemolysis was related to cell age, and it was only after the red cells had been in the circulation for approximately fifty days that they were subject to the hemolytic effects of this drug. No significant biochemical defect could be demonstrated in the erythrocytes of this patient. However, the decline in activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and glutathione reductase in the aging red cell and the reported sensitivity to this drug of patients with red cell deficiency of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase suggest that the hemolytic mechanism is related to this enzyme system. The case demonstrates that drug-induced hemolytic anemia of this type may occur without demonstrable enzymatic defect of the erythrocytes. The observation that patients appear to compensate for the hemolytic anemia and methemoglobinemia if maintained on this drug may be explained by the fact that the older cells containing less adequate enzyme systems are removed from the circulation and an equilibrium is maintained by increased production of red cells with a shorter age span