A prospective stud)! was carried out to determine the epidemiology and etiology of acute gastroenteritis on the general infant ward oj The Montreal Children's Hospital in the late fall of /976. Diarrhea occurred in 4/ of /65 infants (25%), with probable nosocomial acquisition in 26 patients. Two infants each had two episodes of diarrhea. and one had three. A putative pathogen was found In 3/ of 45 case episodes (69%). Virus-like particles were present in 28 o] 45 patients, and in 24 of 74 asymptomatic room contacts. Particles belonging to six morphologic classes were identified: adenovirus. rota virus, minirotavlrus, calicivirus, plcorna-parvovirus, and coronavirus. More than one agent was identified in /2 infants with diarrhea and in five asymptomatic room contacts. No wardwide etiologic pal/ern was evident, but minirotavirus or caltcivirus or both were associated with diarrhea in 10 patients, accompanied by vomiting in /5 of these infants. Moreover, spread oj individual agents was almost entirely limited to minirotavirus and calicivirus, with diarrhea in six of ten. and four of seven, virus positive room contacts. respectively. These viruses were also identified in stools from 12 infants without diarrhea, seven oJ whom had repeated vomiting. Data support the etiologic role oj mlnirotavirus and calicivirus in diarrhea or vomiting or both in hospitalized infants.

Objectives/Hypothesis Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) is a devastating disease, caused by infection of the upper aerodigestive tract with human papillomavirus types 6 and 11. There is no cure for RRP, and surgical removal is the mainstay of treatment. The purpose of this project was to compare genes of cell cycle, apoptosis, and inflammatory cytokines in laryngeal papilloma versus normal tissue for a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the disease to discover novel therapies. Study Design Basic science research study. Methods Papilloma tissue was obtained from patients requiring surgical debridement. For comparison, normal mucosa was obtained from the excised uvula of patients undergoing uvulopalatopharyngoplasty. Total RNA was extracted from both groups and then probed using customized reverse transcriptase real time polymerase chain reaction gene arrays. Results The custom arrays examine expression of 84 separate genes within the cell cycle, apoptosis, and inflammatory cytokine pathways. Our findings based on 11 papilloma samples run in comparison to normal mucosa shows that the MCL–1 gene of the apoptosis pathway is significantly downregulated. cytokine genes IL1-A, IL-8, IL-18, and IL-31 are also significantly dysregulated. Conclusions Genes of cell cycle and apoptosis are generally upregulated and downregulated, respectively, as expected in papilloma tissue, with MCL-1 achieving significance when compared to normal tissue. The finding of particular interest is that inflammatory cytokine genes were significantly downregulated, including IL1-A, IL-18, and IL-31. This finding may explain why patients infected with the virus are unable to mediate a T-cell immune clearance of their disease.

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SUMMARY We studied two infants with Shwachman's syndrome in whom the immunoreactive trypsin concentration was found to be abnormally low. Experience with several hundred assays for immunoreactive trypsin has not shown this low concentration. This finding is probably specific for pancreatic acinar deficiency at this age and strongly suggests Shwachman's syndrome.