Evaluation of Tuberculin Skin Test in Unvaccinated 0- To 7-Year-Old Children of Northern Greece

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:Children with epilepsy are at increased risk for developing behavioral and emotional problems. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate behavioral and emotional problems in children with idiopathic epilepsy and well-controlled seizures (without seizures for at least 6 months) and to investigate whether specific problems are associated with specific medical epilepsy-related factors. METHODS:We studied 68 children who had epilepsy and were aged 6.5 to 9.5 years, divided in 2 subgroups: group A, 37 children (18 boys, 19 girls; mean age: 8.29 Ϯ 1.00 years) with idiopathic generalized epilepsy, and group 〉, 31 children (18 boys, 13 girls; mean age: 8.35 Ϯ 1.12 years) with idiopathic partial epilepsy. The Child Behavior Checklist by Achenbach was used to assess parent-reported behavioral and emotional problems. RESULTS: A total of 45.9% of children in group A had behavioral and emotional problems, whereas 19.4% of children in group B had behavioral and emotional problems. Male gender was correlated with increased incidence of behavioral problems and the abnormal first electroencephalogram with increased incidence of attention problems in group A, whereas low socioeconomic status was correlated with increased incidence of behavioral problems and male gender with increased incidence of attention problems in group B. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study demonstrated a high prevalence of behavioral and emotional problems in children with idiopathic epilepsy. The findings emphasize the necessity to evaluate and address psychosocial problems in children with idiopathic epilepsy, even when their seizures are well controlled. VISUAL SEARCH ATTENTION AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTION IN CHINESE CHILDREN WITH WILLIAMS SYNDROME Submitted by Zheng-Yan Zhao INTRODUCTION:Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder that is caused by a hemizygous deletion on chromosome 7q11.23. The interest of WS to neurocognitive scientists stems from the uneven profiles of cognitive abilities, with spatial cognition seriously impaired and language and face processing relatively proficient. We know relatively little about the visual search attention and executive function in children with WS. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the nature of visual search attention and executive function in children with WS, compared with children with Down syndrome (DS), healthy chronological agematched control subjects (CA), and healthy mental agematched control subjects (MA). METHODS: A total of 142 children were tested: 21 with WS, 25 with DS, 45 CA, and 41 MA. MA were matched to the children with WS and DS using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. All participants were assessed on a set of computerized visual search tasks and Wilding Monster Sorting Test using a touch-screen. RESULTS:The results showed that selective attention, switch, and sustained attention of children with WS all are less developed. Children with WS produced a large number of shape errors, and they also confused shape distractors with targets ...