There is increasing interest from therapists and researchers in children's word-finding difficulties (WFDs). Word finding difficulties are usually considered to be present when children are able to identify a referent from a set of exemplars, but have difficulty producing the target word when shown a picture or in conversation. Word finding difficulties are associated with a number of conversational forms such as delays in the production of a word, the use of long pauses within phrases, frequent use of place holders ('uh', 'um', etc.) and the use of circumlocutions. Although interest is being shown in WFDs, most of the data come from relatively small samples with the result that one knows little about the prevalence of the condition, what circumstances exacerbate the condition, the occurrence of associated difficulties and the types of therapy that are employed. To obtain this information a survey was carried out in the South-East of England of practitioners working with children who have language difficulties. Twenty-three per cent of children in language support services were identified as having WFDs. Most respondents used a mixture of formal and informal assessments. It was reported that WFDs were associated with difficulties in grammatical production, word meaning and grammatical comprehension. WFDs in addition were more likely to occur in situations with high processing demands. A variety of intervention strategies were identified. These findings are discussed in relation to current practice and the authors understanding of the condition.

Adolescent↗

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Vagus nerve stimulation for treatment of partial seizures: 3. Long-term follow-up on first 67 patients exiting a controlled study. First International Vagus Nerve Stimulation Study Group.

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has demonstrated a significant anticonvulsant effect in preclinical studies, in pilot studies in humans, and in the acute phase of a multicenter, double-blinded, randomized study. After completion of a 14-week, blinded, randomized study, with 31 receiving high (therapeutic) VNS and 36 receiving low (less or noneffective) VNS, 67 patients elected to continue in an open extension phase. During the extension phase, all 67 patients received high VNS. Seizure frequency during the 3-month treatment blocks was compared with a 12-week baseline. For both groups, all periods of high VNS demonstrated a significant decrease in seizure frequency (p < 0.01 level) as compared with baseline. For the 16-18-month period of VNS, data were available for 26 of the 31 patients randomized to high VNS. This group achieved a 52.0% mean seizure frequency percentage reduction as compared with baseline. For those converted from low to high VNS, data were available for 24 of the 36 patients at the 16-18-month time period. This group reported a mean seizure frequency percentage reduction of 38.1% as compared with baseline. No significant change in the safety/side effect profile was reported during long-term follow-up. The previously reported side effects of hoarseness/voice change, coughing, and paresthesia (sensation in neck and jaw) continued to occur during VNS. These side effects were well tolerated. During the follow-up period, 1 patient died of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and 5 patients discontinued treatment because of unsatisfactory efficacy.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

How to gain weight by looking up.

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Birth Certificates↗

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Clinicopathological profile of cutaneous lymphomas--a 10 year retrospective study from south India.

This is a retrospective study of cutaneous lymphomas (CL) seen over a ten year period. (January '88-December '97) in Christian Medical College & Hospital, Vellore, S. India. The aims of the study were to describe the clinicopathological profile of CL and correlate it with results of immunophenotyping. Thirty three patients were included of whom 31 had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and two Hodgkin's disease. REAL scheme was used for classification. In the NHL group there were 20 patients with cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL), 7 with cutaneous B cell lymphoma (CBCL), 1 with anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) and 3 patients were unclassifiable. Mycosis fungoides was the most common CTCL (55.5%). Three (15%) of patients had subcutaneous panniculitic T cell lymphoma (SPTL). The duration of the disease was significantly longer (P < .05) in patients with MF as compared to non MF CTCL and CBCL. One patient with Sezary's syndrome was HTLV 1 positive. There was no difference in survival (p = 0.86) after diagnosis in the three main groups.

Adolescent↗