Chronic vitamin D overdosage: a reminder.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M M Liberman.
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Ureaplasma urealyticum organisms (ureaplasmas) were isolated from throat swabs and/or gastric aspirates taken from 22.5% of babies with respiratory distress in a special care unit. The organisms were isolated most frequently (33%) from a small number of babies with severe distress. However, they were recovered only a little less often (26%) from babies without respiratory distress in the unit, and from 19% of healthy babies, all of the aforementioned babies having been delivered vaginally. The numbers of organisms isolated from babies in the various groups were similar. There was, therefore, no clear evidence that ureaplasmas, nor M. hominis which was isolated from two babies only, were associated with respiratory distress. This finding was supported by the isolation of ureaplasmas from only one of 16 babies born by caesarian section, seven of whom developed respiratory distress but were ureaplasma-negative.
A case is reported of a child with Down's syndrome who developed acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia, and in whom the evolution of the disease was accompanied by increasing cytogenetic abnormalities. A review of the literature suggests that the presence of an abnormal chromosome 21 may predispose to the development of this type of leukaemia.
Two investigations of paediatric manpower in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland were carried out, each using a different method. The first survey located registrars and senior registrars and checked on their occupational status 3 years later in order to see which ones had been promoted. Loss factors--such as emigration, retirement for personal reasons, part-time training, or transfer to general practice, community paediatrics, or other medical specialties--were examined closely. The second survey was a cross-sectional analysis of the entire paediatric establishment. It examined in particular the distribution of consultants and registrars. Using figures from survey 2 and loss factors from survey 1, a model of the paediatric career structure could be constructed. This showed that the present career pyramid would be unable to absorb the current number of registrars in training. There is an urgent need for a comprehensive registration scheme for registrars, especially those with honorary contracts, who are not currently included in official records. Paediatrics is unique in having a high proportion of women for whom there is little opportunity of reconciling career aspirations with family commitments.
We evaluted measurement of urinary 4-hydroxyphenyl acetic acid as a potential screening method for small-bowel disease and bacterial overgrowth syndromes in 360 unselected acutely ill infants and children. Control data were obtained on 120 healthy children, ages 1.5 to 15 years, from a general medical practice, 48 healthy infants, ages one to five years, from local day nurseries, and 150 healthy babies, ages less than one to eight days. Comparative data were from 300 acutely ill hospitalized babies and children, ranging in age from less than one day to 15 years and without clinical evidence for small-bowel disease and bacterial overgrowth syndrome. No false-negative results and only 2% false-positive results were observed. Among the 10 patients whose urinary excretion of the analyte was considered to be abnormal were patients with Giardia lamblia infestation, ileal resection with blind loop, and other diseases of the small intestine associated with bacterial overgrowth. We conclude that measurement of 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid excretion is useful in screening for such diseases.
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An infant with a combination of clinical and biochemical features resembling those found in hereditary tyrosinemia ("inborn hepatorenal dysfunction with tyrosyluria") but with spontaneous recovery is described briefly. The child also had severe congenital hydrocephalus, and was being given chloral hydrate. She was not treated by restriction of dietary phenylalanine and tyrosine. The abnormal aromatic aciduria was unaltered by ascorbic acid administration. The results of loading tests with phenylalanine, tyrosine, and sodium 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate are compatible with the existence of a partial block in the oxidation of 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate to homogentisate which was exacerbated by administering chloral hydrate.
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An infant presenting with high-output cardiac failure and a single large diffuse haemangioma of the liver is described. Corticosteroid therapy failed to produce any improvement, but hepatic artery ligation was followed by dramatic disappearance of the signs of cardiac failure and a decrease in the size of the liver without any evidence of lasting liver damage.
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