Background: Breastfeeding may protect children from developing metabolic syndrome and other diseases later in life. We investigated novel proteins in human breast milk that might play a role in this process. We found a significant correlation between AFABP and EFABP concentrations (r ‫؍‬ 0.593, P <0.0001). Maternal EFABP concentrations were significantly higher in mothers who delivered boys than in those who delivered girls

Background: Evidence of the impact of in utero exposure to anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha on long-term childhood development is limited. The aim was to assess the impact of in utero exposure to anti-TNF-alpha due to mothers' inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on longterm postnatal development of exposed children. Methods: We included consecutive children (≥12 months of age) born to mothers with IBD (2007-2016) treated with anti-TNF-alpha during pregnancy in 3 centers in the Czech Republic. A control group was comprised of unexposed children of non-IBD mothers undergoing mandatory checkups at general pediatricians' offices. Data on perinatal period, psychomotor development, vaccination, infections, antibiotics, and allergy were collected by treating pediatricians using a predefined questionnaire. Results: Seventy-two exposed and 69 unexposed children were included (median age, 35 and 50 months, respectively). Exposed children had growth and psychomotor development similar to controls. There was no significant difference in infectious complications within the first year of life (23.9% vs 17.4%; P = 0.36) or during the whole follow-up between exposed infants and controls (P = 0.32). Concomitant immunosuppressants during pregnancy and anti-TNF-alpha levels in cord blood were not associated with elevated infection rate within the first year of life (P > 0.05). Over 95% of exposed children had adequate serologic response to vaccination, except for haemophilus and mumps vaccines. Clinically manifested allergy was similar between the groups (P = 0.98). Conclusions: Anti-TNF-alpha exposure in utero does not seem to have a negative impact on postnatal development of children with regard to infectious complications, allergy, growth, or psychomotor development when compared with unexposed children of non-IBD women.

Invasive meningococcal disease continues to be a life-threatening condition and rapid diagnosis is important for the administration of appropriate treatment. This study focused on the use of PCR for the diagnosis of meningococcal aetiology and the dynamics of PCR-based diagnosis over time in various biological samples. Sixty cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and 144 serum samples collected during the first week of hospitalisation from 37 patients with laboratory-confirmed invasive meningococcal disease were investigated. Overall, 91.9% of CSF samples and 45.9% of serum samples were PCR-positive, while culture of CSF and blood was positive for only 35% and 39% samples, respectively. Positive PCR results were obtained until day 7 with CSF and until day 5 with serum. It is therefore recommended that samples for molecular diagnosis should be collected early in the course of suspected invasive meningococcal disease.

We showed current clinical usefulness of the latex agglutination (LA) test for confirmation of meningococcal etiology on 32 cerebrospinal fluid, 77 serum and 93 urine samples collected during the first week of hospitalization from 19 patients with laboratory confirmed invasive meningococcal disease. The positivity of the LA test in cerebrospinal fluid was 47%, in serum 42% and in urine 24%, while the PCR of cerebrospinal fluid and serum was positive in 95 and 47% cases, respectively. The latest positivity of the LA test was detected on day 2 in cerebrospinal fluid, on day 3 in serum and on day 4 in urine. In the group of patients who had received antibiotic therapy we found nonsignificant reduction of LA positivity and also statistically significant reduction of culture positivity in CSF (p = 0.04); the PCR positivity changed minimally. In blood samples, nonsignificant reduction of culture positivity and no difference in LA and PCR positivity was found. We did not find any statistically significant relationship between test results and clinical forms. The LA test can be therefore considered to be an auxiliary diagnostic method, rapid and easily practicable but less sensitive than PCR. It can be recommended especially for local laboratories where PCR is not available and the patient already received antibiotics before admission to the hospital.

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