Baptist Memorial HospitalGender differences in cognitive outcome were examined in children born prematurely who had incurred early cerebral lesions and in a high-risk comparison group. The boys and girls, who had suffered perinatal intracranial hemorrhage-the most common neurological insult in the preterm infant-were similar in their antenatal, perinatal, and postnatal course, as well as in their sociofamilial attributes. After statistical adjustment to account for the extent of the insult, a significant gender difference in cognitive recovery was observed in the lesion group. Girls outperformed boys by about half a standard deviation on standardized intelligence tests. No gender differences were observed in the comparison group. The implications of the results for theories and empirical findings on gender differences in vulnerability to deviation from normal development are discussed.Issues of gender differences in intellectual performance and social behavior have remained in the focus of contemporary psychological research in the last decade. Gender differences have been described in cognitive styles and temperament

In a retrospective review of 155 children with tracheobronchial foreign body aspiration (FBA), there were ten patients who had pneumomediastinum (PM) on an initial chest radiograph. Nine of ten presented with PM and one patient had PM noted after bronchoscopy. In a child less than two years of age with no history of trauma, the radiographic finding of PM should prompt further investigation for FBA.

Sex differences in early vulnerability to cerebral injury were examined in a lO-year cohort of preterm infants. The 173 infants, whose gestational age was 32 weeks or less, were diagnosed with intracranial hemorrhage (lCH), the most common cerebral insult in the premature neonate. Determination of ICH severity was based on neuroimaging evidence obtained during the neonatal period. Because the females in the sample exhibited greater dysmaturity coupled with lower birthweight, as compared with their male counterparts, analysis of covariance was applied to the data After statistically controlling for the influence of potentially confounding perinatal variables, gender was found to provide a unique contribution to extent of ventricular dilation, an index of ICH severity. Male sex was associated not only with greater ventriculomegaly, but also with a higher grade of ICH. The latter effect was demonstrable in a large subsample of 72 males and 77 females whose birthweights were 1,750 g or below, and who did not differ significantly in gestational age. The implications of these results for theories about the neurobiological origins of sex differences in susceptibility to deviation from normal development are addressed.Beginning with gestation, the human male is more vulnerable to adversity than the human female. There is a higher frequency of miscarried and stillborn males (Baumgartner, Pessin, Wegman,