The aim of this study was to analyse the prevalence of the most relevant clinical features of the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a sample of male patients with lupus as well as the incidence of the main causes of morbidity in a 5-year period after the diagnosis. A further aim of this study was to investigate the impact of gender on expression and morbidity of SLE. Data were collected from the medical records of 59 male and 535 female patients with SLE who were diagnosed at the hospitals in the region of Thessaloniki. Several differences in the expression and morbidity of the disease were found in relation to the gender of the patient. Male patients had a higher prevalence of thromboses, nephropathy, strokes, gastrointestinal tract symptoms and antiphospholipid syndrome when compared with female patients, but tended to present less often with arthralgia, hair loss, Raynaud's phenomenon and photosensitivity as the initial clinical manifestations. During the 5-year follow-up, positive associations have been found between male gender and the incidence of tendonitis, myositis, nephropathy and infections, particularly of the respiratory tract. In conclusion, this study has provided information regarding the features of clinical expression and morbidity in male patients, and has shown that gender is a possible factor that can influence the clinical expression of SLE.

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The present study was designed to examine the effect of an intervention program on nursery school children's locomotor development. Participants were 98 children (50 boys and 48 girls) aged 3.5-5 from three preschools of the Municipality of Kalamaria, in Greece. The 49 children who formed the experimental group participated for two months in 16 organised courses, designed to develop basic motor skills. The measurement tool used to evaluate the sample before and after the intervention was Urlich's test of gross motor development (TGMD-2, 2000). The statistical analysis showed that the experimental group after the intervention program performed better than the control group without statistically significant differences between the sexes. The results showed that educators should incorporate corresponding motor programs in their daily schedule, although there is currently no curriculum for nursery school that includes them.

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