Assessment of attention in preschoolers.

In the past two decades, there has been an increased interest in the assessment and treatment of preschool children presenting with concerns about attention problems. This article reviews the research and clinical literature involving assessment of attention and related skills in the preschool years. While inattention among preschoolers is common, symptoms alone do not necessarily indicate a disorder, and most often represent a normal variation in typical preschool child development. Thus, accurate identification of "disordered" attention in preschoolers can be challenging, and development of appropriate, norm-referenced tests of attention for preschoolers is also difficult. The current review suggests that comprehensive assessment of attention and related functions in the preschool child should include thorough review of the child's history, planned observations, and formal psychometric testing. The three primary methods of psychometric assessment that have been used to characterize attentional functioning in preschool children include performance-based tests, structured caregiver interviews, and rating scales (parent, teacher, and clinician). Among performance-based methods for measurement of attention in the preschool years, tests have been developed to assess sustained attention, selective (focused) attention, span of attention (encoding/manipulation), and (top-down) controlled attention--including freedom from distractibility and set shifting. Many of these tests remain experimental in nature, and review of published methods yields relatively few commercially available, nationally normed tests of attention for preschoolers, and an overall dearth of reliability and validity studies on the available measures.

Thrombosis of the aorta abdominalis in infants--diagnosis and thrombolytic therapy.

Aortic thrombosis is rarely observed in neonates and infants. Underlying conditions include the presence of umbilical artery catheters, thrombosed aneurysm of the ductus arteriosus, sepsis and different states of inherited thrombophilia. Treatment options include anticoagulation, thrombolytic therapy and thrombectomy. Due to the lack of large studies, neither diagnosis nor treatment of neonatal aortic thrombosis are standardized.From 2008-2010, 1 neonate and 1 infant were admitted to our hospital with symptomatic aortic thrombosis.In both patients, diagnosis was made by Doppler ultrasound. Both patients were effectively treated with recombinant tissue type plasminogen activator. Diagnosis and treatment of 2 infants with symptomatic aortic thrombosis are discussed and the literature is reviewed.Since aortic thrombosis is a life-threatening condition, early diagnosis by Doppler ultrasound is mandatory to initiate treatment without delay. Thrombolytic therapy is a safe measure to treat this condition if administered with caution and if the patient has not suffered from serious complications such as mesenteric infarction or renal failure prior to begin of therapy.

[Clinical data on the use of estriol-testosterone combinations in small animal practice]. / Klinische Daten bei der Verwendung von Ostriol-Testosteron-Kombinationen in der Lleintierpraxis

A combination of oestriol and testosterone oenanthate was tried in 14 different indications on 110 dogs and 5 cats of both sexes. Two formulations were used, containing in 1 ml either 0.15 mg oestriol and 2.25 mg testosterone or 1.15 mg of the former and 2.25 mg of the latter. Dosage was 0.2 ml per kg body weight, by i/m injection. The criterion for success was the degree of functional restitution, without taking into account pathological changes, which were generally unaffected. Good or very good results were obtained in hip dysplasia, arthitis and patellar luxation. None of the 50 bitches treated showed signs of oestrus or irregularities in the cycle. The formulation containing the lower drug concentration seemed to give the best therapeutic results.