Campylobacter jejuni was isolated from stool cultures from 14 (30%) of 46 patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome and from 6 (1.2%) of 503 healthy persons, and the difference was highly significant (p < 0.0001). In addition, serological evidence of recent C. jejuni infection was found in 5 of 29 patients with negative stool cultures. Therefore, 41% of patients were associated with C. jejuni infection. Ten of 12 (83%) isolates from patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome belonged to Penner serogroup 19, which is a rare serogroup in sporadic patients with C. jejuni enteritis. In the lectin typing study, all serogroup 19 strains from patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome were shown to contain terminal beta-N-acetylglucosamine residues on their cell surface, but serogroup 19 strains from patients with enteritis were not.

Members of the Japanese Society of Pediatric Pulmonology and the Japanese Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases developed the Guidelines for the Management of Respiratory Infectious Diseases in Children with the objective of facilitating the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of childhood respiratory infections. To date, a first edition (2004) and a revised edition (2007) have been issued. Many problems complicate the diagnosis of the pathogens responsible for bronchopulmonary infections in children. The Guidelines were the first pediatric guidelines in the world to recommend treatment with antimicrobials suited to causative pathogens as identified from cultures of sputum and other clinical specimens collected from infection sites and satisfying assessment criteria. The major causative microorganisms for pneumonia in infants and children were revealed to be Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Mycoplasma pneumoniae. This manuscript describes the Guidelines for the Management of Respiratory Infectious Diseases in Children in Japan 2007, with a focus on pneumonia.

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Although a delay in diagnosis and stronger inflammation were found in LKD patients, such differences did not have any significant effect on patients' outcomes as assessed by the frequency of IVIG administration and the presence of CALs.

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