ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between aspiration, as identified by videofluoroscopic swallowing (VFS) study, and pneumonia in children with suspected dysphagia. Data were retrospectively collected and analysed from 142 children referred for VFS over a one-year period. The median age was 33 months. Aspiration was identified in 44 per cent of the children studied. A history of pneumonia within one year of the VFS was found in 35 per cent. Aspiration, gastro-oesophageal reflux, and age one year or less were significant risk factors for pneumonia. Children with traumatic brain-injury were at less risk for pneumonia than all other children with suspected dysphagia. These results lend objective support to the previously suspected relationship between aspiration and pneumonia in this patient population.
Subject(s)
Deglutition Disorders/diagnosis , Deglutition Disorders/epidemiology , Pneumonia, Aspiration/diagnosis , Pneumonia, Aspiration/epidemiology , Child , Child, Preschool , Deglutition Disorders/complications , Female , Fluoroscopy , Humans , Infant , Intubation, Gastrointestinal/adverse effects , Male , Pneumonia, Aspiration/etiology , Risk Factors , Videotape RecordingSubject(s)
Semantics , Size Perception , Word Association Tests , Adult , Humans , Models, Psychological , Reaction TimeABSTRACT
Separate groups of people estimated the sizes of perceived or of remembered objects. In three independent experiments, both sets of data were well fit by power functions, and the exponent was reliably smaller by remembered than for perceived size.
Subject(s)
Memory/physiology , Size Perception/physiology , Humans , Models, BiologicalABSTRACT
It has been demonstrated that anesthesia primarily affects the reticular activating system and psychological studies on patients undergoing anesthesia demonstrated a verbal memory defect. This study was performed in order to determine whether metabolic (uremic) encephalopathy follows the Jacksonian dissolution hypothesis and disrupts cortical function or whether it acts like an anesthetic, causes dysfunction in phylogenetically older systems and thereby produces a memory defect. Twenty-four uremic subjects were tested for memory function, language function, and intellectual function, and compared to 12 control subjects. The greatest difference between the groups was in immediate memory function suggesting that uremia probably acts in a manner similar to anesthesia (by causing dysfunction in the reticular activating system). It is postulated that poor arousal interferes with rehearsal and rehearsal is probably an important component of immediate memory.
