Celiac disease and obesity: need for nutritional follow-up after diagnosis.

More than 20 years of serological approach to diagnosis of celiac disease (CD) has deeply changed the classical clinical presentation of the disease, and some reports indicate that CD and obesity can coexist in both childhood and adolescence. We reviewed clinical records of 149 children with CD followed in our institution between 1991 and 2007, considering weight, height and body mass index (BMI), both at diagnosis and after at least 12 months of gluten-free diet (GFD). In all, 11% of patients had BMI z-score >+1 and 3% were obese (z-score >+2) at presentation. In our population, there was a significant (P=0.008) increase in BMI z-score after GFD and the percentage of overweight (z-score >+1) subjects almost doubled (11 vs 21%, P=0.03). Our data suggest the need for a careful follow-up of nutritional status after diagnosis of CD, especially addressing those who are already overweight at presentation.

Retrospective assessment of historic radon concentrations in Norwegian dwellings by measuring glass implanted Po-210--an international field intercomparison.

The first Norwegian study of historic radon concentrations in 17 dwellings in the high radon areas in Norway has been conducted as part of an international field intercomparison during 1998. The retrospective radon concentration is estimated via measurements of Po-210, the long-lived decay product of Rn-222 implanted in glass surfaces of objects like pictures, mirrors, cabinet-glass, etc. the method called 'surface trap'. Three different surface trap techniques to assess the implanted Po-210 activity and two different procedures to estimate retro radon from Po-210 data were used. The Po-210 and the retrospectively estimated radon results agree reasonably well over a wide range of concentrations. Historic radon concentrations were also estimated from analysis of a smaller number of 'volume trap' samples (pieces of spongy materials), and the results compared to those from 'surface traps'. The retro radon results correlate with contemporary radon results with a correlation coefficient of 0.877. To evaluate uncertainty in Po-210 measurements due to varying position on the glass a study of spatial homogeneity of three sample glasses was conducted and variations between 12% and 18% were found.