We tested the hypothesis that term and preterm infants exposed to maternal infection at the time of delivery are at increased risk of developing cerebral palsy (CP). STUDY DESIGN:A population-based case-control study was conducted using Washington State birth certificate data linked to hospital discharge data. Cases (688) were children r6 years old, singleton births, hospitalized during 1987 to 1999 with an ICD-9 diagnosis code for CP. Controls were 3068 singleton birth infants randomly selected from birth records for the same years without CP-related hospitalizations. Infection information was available only for the birth hospitalization. RESULTS:Infants of women who had any infection during their hospitalization for delivery were at increased risk of CP (odds ratio (OR) 3.1, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.3 to 4.2). This was observed for term deliveries (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.8) and preterm deliveries (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.3 to 4.2). CONCLUSIONS:Our results suggest that maternal infection is a risk factor for CP in both term and preterm infants.

VA status in ELBW infants was improved and maintained over the first month of life with IM VAS. Because of concerns for potential risks of repeated injections, further studies are indicated to evaluate the optimal mode of VA delivery in preterm infants.

This study was conducted to assess the probability of success with which middle-school-age soccer players could correctly localize lower leg pain to sites of common overuse injuries, using a graphic self-report instrument. Subjects included 98 middle-school soccer players, ages 12 to 15 years. Players' self-reports of leg pain were compared with the results of a blind physical examination. Players reporting pain of more than two weeks' duration successfully localized a statistically significant number of their sites of pain using the graphic form, providing evidence of concurrent validity. Further development is needed before the measure can be used in surveillance of overuse injuries in youth sports.

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