[Dominant polycystic kidney disease in children. Clinical aspects related to age and problems of early diagnosis]. / La malattia policistica renale dominante nel bambino. Gli aspetti clinici peculiari dell'età ed i problemi della diagnosi precoce.

Two cases of Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (DPKD) are reported in newborns of two different affected families. One of two infants was prenatally diagnosed by ultrasound, few cases of in utero diagnosis being previously reported. The two infants had different course: one had no symptoms (14 months now), on the contrary the other one had abdominal mass at birth and oliguria in the first 48 hours, then acute pyelonephritis at 15 months. The increasing incidence of DPKD diagnosed in infants and children by US screening in risk subjects is stressed and importance of precocious diagnosis for genetic counselling emphasized.

[A case of primary acute eosinophilic meningitis]. / Un caso di meningite eosinofila acuta primitiva.

The authors present a case of meningitis with a significant eosinophilic pleiocytosis in the cerebrospinal fluid in a eighteen months old girl. The rapidly favourable course and the negative parasitological research direct the diagnosis to acute primary eosinophilic meningitis. The meaning of the presence of some colonies of H. influenzae in the cerebrospinal fluid is discussed.

[Radioimmunologic analysis of calcitonin and parathyroid hormone in the study of calcium homeostasis in the newborn infant during the first days of life]. / Contributo del dosaggio radioimmunologico della calcitonina e del paratormone nello studio dell'omeostasi calcica nel neonato nei primi giorni di vita.

Measurements of serum calcium on the first, third and sixth day of life and serum Parathyroid hormone (PTH) and Calcitonin (CT) by radioimmunoassay on the first and third day of life have been effected on a group of 31 infants born after 29-42 weeks of gestation and weighing at birthday 1300-3510 g. The mean serum iCT levels on the first day of life (996 +/- 95 pg/ml) were significantly higher than on the third day of life (533 +/- 79 pg/ml; p less than 0,001) and both were upper normal range of method (200 pg/ml). Mean serum iCT values were found negatively correlated both with birthweight (p less than 0,025) and with gestational age (on 1st day p less than 0,02; on 3rd day p less than 0,001) in AGA newborns. No correlation was found between iCT values and serum Calcium values. The mean serum iPTH levels on the first and third day of life were in the normal range (on 1st day 416 +/- 61 pg/ml; on 3 rd day 640 +/- 114 pg/ml) and not correlated neither with serum Calcium and serum iCT levels, nor with birthweight and gestational age of the newborns. It is excluded that any transient hypoparathyroidism can cause early neonatal hypocalcemia and it is confirmed the presence of high levels of serum Calcitonin in term and premature infants.