The perception of invariant speech features in children with autism.

We investigated whether the good pitch-discrimination abilities reported in individuals with autism have adverse effects on their speech perception by compromising their ability to extract invariant phonetic features from speech input. The MMN, a brain response reflecting sound-discrimination processes, was recorded from children with autism and their controls for phoneme-category and pitch changes in speech stimuli under two different conditions: (a) when all the other features of the standard and deviant stimuli were kept constant, and (b) when constant variation with respect to an irrelevant feature was introduced to the standard and deviant stimuli. Children with autism had enhanced MMNs for pitch changes in both conditions, as well as for phoneme-category changes in the constant-feature condition. However, when the phoneme-category changes occurred in phonemes having pitch variation, the MMN enhancement was abolished in autistic children. This suggests that children with autism lose their advantage in phoneme discrimination when the context of the stimuli is speech-like and requires abstracting invariant speech features from varying input.

Geochemistry of ground water and the incidence of acute myocardial infarction in Finland.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of spatial variation in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) incidence and its putative environmental determinants in ground water such as total water hardness, the concentration of calcium, magnesium, fluoride, iron, copper, zinc, nitrate, and aluminium. DESIGN: Small area study using Bayesian modelling and the geo-referenced data aggregated into 10 km x 10 km cells. SETTING: The population data were obtained from Statistics Finland, AMI case data from the National Death Register and the Hospital Discharge Register, and the geochemical data from hydrogeochemical database of Geological Survey of Finland. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 18 946 men aged 35-74 years with the first AMI attack in the years 1983, 1988, and 1993. MAIN RESULTS: One unit (in German degree degrees dH) increment in water hardness decreased the risk of AMI by 1%. Geochemical elements in ground water included in this study did not show a statistically significant effect on the incidence and spatial variation of AMI, even though suggestive findings were detected for fluoride (protective), iron and copper (increasing). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study with more specific Bayesian statistical analysis confirm findings from earlier observations of the inverse relation between water hardness and coronary heart disease. The role of environmental geochemistry in the geographical variation of the AMI incidence should be studied further in more detail incorporating the individual intake of both food borne and water borne nutrients. Geochemical-spatial analysis provides a basis for the selection of areas suitable for such research.

Increasing incidence of childhood-onset type I diabetes in 3 Baltic countries and Finland 1983-1998.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: We aimed to study the incidence of Type I diabetes in 4 countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland, during 1983-1998, focusing on the two separate periods of 1983-1990 and 1991-1998. METHODS: Population-based incidence data from nationwide diabetes registries were used. Crude and age-standardized incidence rates using the proportions of 39%, 32% and 29% for 5-year age groups (0-4, 5-9 and 10-14 years) were calculated. Yearly incidence was evaluated and the means between the two periods compared. RESULTS: Between 1983-1990 and 1991-1998 there was a statistically significant incidence increase in all 4 countries of Estonia, Lativia, Lithuania and Finland (relative risk 1.15, 95%-Confidence interval 1.10-1.19) and as well as in the 3 Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (relative risk 1.13, 95%. Confidence interval 1.04-1.22). The crude incidence increased in Estonia from 10.1 (95%-Confidence interval 8.9-11.4) to 12.3 (11.0-13.8), in Latvia from 6.6 (5.8-7.3) to 7.4 (6.6-8.2) and in Lithuania from 6.8 (6.2-7.5) to 7.8 (7.1-8.5). In Finland the incidence rose from 34.6 (33.3-36.0) in 1983-1990 to 40.8 (39.4-42.2) in 1991-1998. In children under 5 years of a age a statistically important increase was seen in Estonia and Finland. The highest incidence for a single year was recorded for all participating countries in the late 1990 s. The highest annual incidence rate of childhood onset Type I diabetes in the world ever known was recorded in Finland in 1998 with 48.5 cases per 100 000 person-years. CONCLUSION/HYPOTHESIS: The incidence of Type I diabetes has increased since 1983 in the three Baltic states as well as in Finland. Long-term monitoring is needed for a better detection in changes in incidence.

Incidence of childhood type 1 diabetes worldwide. Diabetes Mondiale (DiaMond) Project Group.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate and monitor the patterns in incidence of childhood type 1 diabetes worldwide. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: The incidence of type 1 diabetes (per 100,000 per year) from 1990 to 1994 was determined in children < or =14 years of age from 100 centers in 50 countries. A total of 19,164 cases were diagnosed in study populations totaling 75.1 million children. The annual incidence rates were calculated per 100,000 population. RESULTS: The overall age-adjusted incidence of type 1 diabetes varied from 0.1/100,000 per year in China and Venezuela to 36.8/100,000 per year in Sardinia and 36.5/100,000 per year in Finland. This represents a >350-fold variation in the incidence among the 100 populations worldwide. The global pattern of variation in incidence was evaluated by arbitrarily grouping the populations with a very low (<1/100,000 per year), a low (1-4.99/100,000 per year), an intermediate (5-9.99/100,000 per year), a high (10-19.99/100,000 per year), and a very high (> or =20/100,000 per year) incidence. Of the European populations, 18 of 39 had an intermediate incidence, and the remainder had a high or very high incidence. A very high incidence (> or =20/ 100,000 per year) was found in Sardinia, Finland, Sweden, Norway Portugal, the U.K., Canada, and New Zealand. The lowest incidence (<1/100,000 per year) was found in the populations from China and South America. In most populations, the incidence increased with age and was the highest among children 10-14 years of age. CONCLUSIONS: The range of global variation in the incidence of childhood type 1 diabetes is even larger than previously described. The earlier reported polar-equatorial gradient in the incidence does not seem to be as strong as previously assumed, but the variation seems to follow ethnic and racial distribution in the world population.

Infections, inflammation, and the risk of coronary heart disease.

BACKGROUND: The role of infections and inflammation in the pathophysiology of coronary heart disease is emerging. We studied the independent and joint effects of these 2 components on coronary risk. METHODS AND RESULTS: We measured baseline levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and antibodies to adenovirus, enterovirus, cytomegalovirus, and herpes simplex virus as well as to Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cpn) and Helicobacter pylori in 241 subjects who suffered either myocardial infarction or coronary death during the 8.5-year trial in the Helsinki Heart Study, a coronary primary prevention trial. The 241 controls in this nested case-control study were subjects who completed the study without coronary events. Antibody levels to herpes simplex type I (HSV-1) and to Cpn were higher in cases than in controls, whereas the distributions of antibodies to other infectious agents were similar. Mean CRP was higher in cases (4.4 versus 2.0 mg/L; P<0.001), and high CRP increased the risks associated with smoking and with high antimicrobial antibody levels. The odds ratios in subjects with high antibody and high CRP levels were 25.4 (95% CI 2.9-220.3) for HSV-1 and 5.4 (95% CI 2.4-12.4) for Cpn compared with subjects with low antibody levels and low CRP. High antibody levels to either HSV-1 or to Cpn increased the risk independently of the other, and their joint effect was close to additive. CONCLUSIONS: Two chronic infections, HSV-1 and Cpn, increase the risk of coronary heart disease. The effect is emphasized in subjects with ongoing inflammation, denoted by increased CRP levels.