ABSTRACT
An automated fluorometric method, rather than the Guthrie test, has been used in North Carolina for neonatal screening for phenylketonuria (PKU). Although there is no testing law, 97% of newborn infants are screened. Twelve children with PkU, not referred for dietary management, were born before the screening program was established, were born elsewhere, or were successfully identified at birth but not referred for treatment. None was missed because of laboratory error or because of the lack of a testing law. Positive skewing was noted among initial blood phenylalanine levels of 49 infants with PKU and severe hyperphenylalaninemia. Log transformations caused the values to be normally distributed and permitted the calculation of tolerance and confidence limits. These provided estimates of the percentage of phenylketonuric infants whose initial blood levels might fall below any given cutoff value.
Subject(s)
Autoanalysis/standards , Phenylketonurias/diagnosis , Age Factors , False Positive Reactions , Humans , Infant, Newborn , North Carolina , Phenylalanine/blood , Phenylketonurias/blood , Seasons , Statistics as TopicABSTRACT
Cerebral blood flow (CBF) and intellectual rating scale (IRS) measurements were carried out in 54 subjects over the age of 90. Two successive measurements of CBF by the xenon-133 inhalation method, 20 min apart, were made in 38 of these persons under the same conditions in order to measure the precision (repeatability) of the CBF technique on this subject category. A statistically significant lower mean cerebral blood flow was found for this over-90-year-old group compared to young adults. The subjects were divided into subgroups according to their IRS score from normal to severely demented. Resting CBF in the various IRS groups did not differ significantly. However at low IRS values there was much less variability between successive CBF measurements in the same individual suggesting failing vasomotor tone with senile dementia.
Subject(s)
Cerebrovascular Circulation , Dementia/physiopathology , Intelligence , Age Factors , Aged , Female , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
Ventricular volumes have been measured from CT scans of patients with benign intracranial hypertension both at initial presentation and at a later date. Volumes initially were smaller than normal, but at review five patients showed a significant increase in ventricular size. Persisting small ventricular volume correlated with persisting symptoms and signs and with persisting obesity. This supports the view that patients with benign intracranial hypertension have brain swelling and that obesity may be implicated in the pathogenesis, perhaps via a neuroendocrine disturbance. It is suggested that weight reduction may be an important component of treatment.
Subject(s)
Cerebral Ventriculography , Obesity/complications , Pseudotumor Cerebri/etiology , Adolescent , Adult , Cerebral Ventricles/anatomy & histology , Child , Female , Humans , Middle Aged , Tomography, X-Ray ComputedABSTRACT
The volume of the lateral and third ventricles was measured by a non-invasive computerised axial tomographic method in 18 patients presenting with characteristic features of benign intracranial hypertension. Values obtained were significantly lower than in 18 controls matched for age and sex. The demonstration of smaller-than-normal ventricles in benign intracranial hypertension indicates that the syndrome is not primarily due to a disorder of cerebrospinal fluid absorption; rather, the increase in intracranial pressure may be caused by cerebral swelling, either due to oedema or engorgement.
