[Electrophysiologic and anatomic parallels in the status of the external rectal sphincter in healthy children and in those with anorectal developmental abnormalities]. / Elektrofiziologicheskie i anatomicheskie paralleli sostoianiia naruzhnogo sfinktera priamoi kishki zdorovykh detei s anorektal'nymi porokami razvitiia.

Electromyography was used to examine the external rectal sphincter in 44 neonate patients and in 24 patients aged 2 months to 3 years with different anorectal developmental abnormalities. The same examinations were performed in the control groups: in 30 normal neonates, in 15 premature (grade I-II) neonates, and in 64 normal children aged 1 to 14 years. According to the data of comparative morphometry, a study was made of the autopsy material of the external rectal sphincter from 15 full-term stillborns and 16 premature (grade I-II) stillborns as well as from 11 infants with anorectal developmental abnormalities who died within the first days after birth without any surgical intervention. It is concluded that in patients with anorectal developmental abnormalities, the contractility of the external rectal sphincter is considerably lower than in the respective weight groups of normal children and that such patients demonstrated the lack of the normal time-course of changes in its increase with age.

[Urinary excretion of hydroxyproline in funnel chest deformity]. / Ekskretsiia oksiprolina s mochoi pri voronkoobraznoi deformatsii grudnoi kletki.

Excretion of hydroxyproline with urine was studied in 16 children with localized form of funnel chest deformation simultaneously with Marfan and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, in 9 children with the localized form of deformation within 6-8 months after thorax surgical plastic operation as well as in 3 children with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome but without funnel chest deformation. Funnel chest deformation of the II-III degree, independently of its form, was accompanied by a decrease of total hydroxyproline in urine as compared with healthy children of the similar age. The hydroxyproline excretion was normalized after thoracoplastic operation in the children with localized form of the chest deformation. In Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, independently on presence or absence of the chest deformation, relative content of free hydroxyproline was increased in urine, while the peptide-bound amino acid was decreased (peptides with molecular mass above 700 daltons); this phenomenon appears to be a characteristic property of the syndrome.

[Potentialities of gamma-scintigraphy in the diagnosis of Meckel's diverticulum in children]. / Vozmozhnosti gammastsintigrafii v diagnostike divertikula Mekkelia u detei.

Altogether 84 children aged 1 to 15 were examined. The index of 99mTc-pertechnetate relative accumulation in the ectopic gastric mucosa was proposed to be used to objectify and improve the quality of diagnosis of Meckel's diverticulum. The index over 42% was shown to be typical of Meckel's diverticulum and it can be used for automated diagnosis of the disease. The use of the above quantitative index made it possible to reject 20% of false positive results obtained at visual interpretation of scintigrams.