Psychometric evaluation of social phobia and anxiety inventory for children (SPAI-C) and social anxiety scale for children-revised (SASC-R).

The study evaluated the psychometric properties of Finnish versions of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C) and the Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised (SASC-R). 352 students (M = 12.2 years) participated in the study and completed the SPAI-C and SASC-R. In addition, 68 participants (M = 12.2 years) and their parents were interviewed with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged Children (K-SADS-PL). The SPAI-C was more sensitive for identifying youth meeting criteria for social phobia (SP), whereas the SASC-R demonstrated greater specificity. The youth in this sample had lower mean total scores on the self-report questionnaires than did those in the original validitation studies of the SPAI-C and SASC-R conducted in America. These findings question whether cross-cultural differences in the expression of SP influence the clinical cut-off scores used in translated versions of social anxiety questionnaires.

Childhood caries is still in force: a 15-year follow-up.

OBJECTIVE: To examine changes in caries prevalence among 3 to 15-year-old adolescents. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Of 1582 eligible mothers, 1443 gave informed consent. Participating children and their parents were followed up continuously from 3 to 15 years of age in a pre-planned fashion and at regular intervals. Data on dental health status were obtained from 1066/1287 adolescents (82%) during regular clinical dental examinations. RESULTS: Dentinal untreated caries (D) was seen among more than 26% of the adolescents at 15 years of age. Altogether, 4.9 carious teeth surfaces were affected in each case (mean). Close to 18% of the adolescents (186/1066) had poor dental health (DMFT was 5 or more) and 26% (271/1066) had DMFS 5 or more. CONCLUSIONS: Dental caries continues to constitute an increasing challenge in dental health care: any caries at 3, 5, 7, or 10 years of age was a predictor of poor dental health at 15 years of age.

Visceral varicella zoster virus infection after stem cell transplantation: a possible cause of severe abdominal pain.

Reactivation of varicella zoster virus (VZV) is a common event after stem cell transplantation (SCT). When activated in the abdominal cavity, the infection may be life threatening. Visceral presentation with VZV infection is uncommon, although probably an under-diagnosed event in post-SCT patients. The interval from onset of abdominal pain to the development of skin eruptions may delay the initiation of specific antiviral therapy and symptoms may be incorrectly diagnosed as surgical disease or graft-versus-host disease. We describe the case of a 53-year-old man who had undergone stem cell autograft for multiple myeloma and developed visceral VZV infection with hepatitis, melaena and subileus 7 months later.