Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) belongs to the Pneumovirus genus of the Paramyxovirus virus family. RSV is the leading cause of virus-induced lower respiratory tract disease among infants and children (6,21,26) and is the most common pathogen found in children under 5 years of age admitted to the hospital. Essentially every child develops an RSV infection during the first 2 years of life, and recurrent infections are common (20,24,42,44). RSV is especially serious in premature infants and children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia or congenital heart disease. Additionally, in recent studies, RSV was the most common virus identified in the middle-ear fluid of children suffering from acute otitis media (25,43). RSV infection has also been implicated in the development of childhood asthma and other long-term conditions involving pulmonary dysfunction (54-56).
A sex pheromone isolated from the cuticle and feces of the female house fly attracts the male fly; it has been identified as ( Z )-9-tricosene. Chemical and biological comparisons of the natural and synthesized compounds show that they are identical.
SUMMARY Bone mineral content of the forearm was measured by photon absorptiometry in 17 preterm infants at a postconceptional age of 40 weeks. Radiographs of the forearm were assessed by Koo's method and plasma alkaline phosphatase activity was also measured at this time. Bone mineral content was significantly but weakly correlated with Koo score and was not significantly correlated with alkaline phosphatase activity. Neither of these two commonly used investigations accurately predicts the presence of underlying bone disease.Compared with 15 full term infants the preterm infants had significantly lower values of bone mineral content, palpated ulnar length, and crown-heel length. After adjusting for weight and ulnar length the preterm group still had a significantly lower mean value of bone mineral content than the full term group. Accurate diagnosis of osteopenia of prematurity requires photon absorptiometry, with bone mineral content assessed relative to body weight or ulnar length.Bone disease (rickets of prematurity or osteopenia) is now being increasingly recognised in surviving preterm infants.' Diagnosis is usually based on either radiological abnormalities2 or rises in plasma alkaline phosphatase activity.3 Radiological diagnosis is likely to be imprecise because the assessment is subjective and a major loss of bone mineral might have to occur before characteristic changes are apparent.4 Although raised plasma alkaline phosphatase activity is observed in association with frank radiological rickets,3 activities change with postnatal age, and it is difficult to decide what activity represents underlying bone disease.5 6Bone mineral content can be measured directly with photon absorptiometry, and we have previously shown that an absorptiometer specifically developed and calibrated for small infants is very precise and accurate.7 We have compared radiographic and biochemical evidence for bone disease with measurements of bone mineral content in a group of preterm infants on reaching the postconceptional age of 40 weeks, with the aim of assessing the diagnostic accuracy of these two commonly used investigations. We have also compared bone mineral content and other measurements related to body size of preterm infants at 40 weeks with similar measurements of full term infants near the time of birth to assess whether osteopenia of prematurity contains a component that is independent of reduced growth. Patients and methodsFourteen boys and three girls born at or before 32 weeks and eight boys and seven girls born at term were investigated after informed parental consent had been obtained. The excess of boys in the preterm group was not the result of selection but reflected the population in the neonatal unit when the study was undertaken. Sex, gestational age, and weight at birth are given in Tables 1 (preterm infants) and 2 (full term infants). Gestational age was assessed according to the mother's last menstrual period and clinical criteria at birth. Investigations were performed within five days of the postco...
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