Measles, polio and tetanus toxoid antibody levels in Gambian children aged 3 to 4 years following routine vaccination

A nation-wide cross-sectional survey of 816 children 3-4 years old was carried out in The Gambia between September 1990 and July 1991 to assess the seroprevalence of antibodies against 3 diseases included in the expanded programme on immunization: measles, poliomyelitis and tetanus. Among 689 children whose records were available, 94.5% were fully immunized. Measles vaccine was administered to 97% of the children and 91% of these had detectable antibodies at the time of the survey. Antibodies against type 1 and type 3 polioviruses, after up to 6 doses of oral polio vaccine, were present in 88.1% and 89.3% of the children respectively. Ninety-seven percent of the children who had received 4 doses of diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine (DPT) and 91% of those who received 3 doses had detectable tetanus toxoid antibodies at the age of 3-4 years. This study shows that serological responses to EPI vaccines given in infancy persist at very satisfactory levels throughout early childhood.     

Complications after BCG vaccination in the urban section of Lod? in the years 1994-5

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the incidence of complications after BCG vaccination in children from urban area of Lód? in 1994-1995 and to give their pathological and prognostic interpretation on the basis of immunological and Gro?r allergometric examinations. The obtained data demonstrate that postvaccinal complications occurred in 46 children, that is 0.7/1000 of vaccinated population. They were observed mainly in newborns (45.7%), whereas they were particularly rare in revaccinated six-year-old children (13%) and schoolchildren (8.7%). In half of the cases there was an evidence of ulceration and suppuration in the site of vaccination, in another half--suppuration of local lymph nodes with or without fistula. Immunological and allergometric examinations were carried out in 21 children with post-vaccinal complications and 21 children with normal post-vaccinal period. In both groups the following were the subjects of evaluation: values of B and T lymphocytes and their CD4 and CD8 subpopulations, lymphocytes proliferative response to mitogenic PHA doses and tuberculin, as well as IgG, IgA and IgM levels. Immunological and allergometric examinations indicated that immunosuppression was neither the cause nor the effect of BCG complications.     

Persistence of humoral immunity to rabies 1100 days after immunization and effect of a single booster dose of rabies vaccine

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between excessive endogenous production of nitric oxide (NO) and the low systemic vascular resistance (SVR) syndrome after cardiac surgery. DESIGN: Prospective, case-control. Cases defined by low SVR postoperatively (< 750 dyn/s/cm-5), and matched with controls (> 900 dyn/s/cm-5). SETTING: Cardiothoracic intensive care unit (ICU) in a tertiary care hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-four patients after cardiac surgery. INTERVENTIONS: Collection of plasma and urine samples after identification. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Plasma and urine nitrate concentrations were measured as an index of endogenous NO production. Hemodynamic, inotropic, and outcome data were collected. Median nitrate concentrations did not differ between cases and controls (plasma, 58 mumol/L, v 62 mumol/L, p = 0.43; urine, 399 mumol/L v 404 mumol/L, p = 0.38). Times to extubation and intensive care unit (ICU) discharge were prolonged in patients with low SVR (17.8 hours v 8.7 hours, p = 0.021; 2.5 days v 1.2 days, p = 0.019, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: No association between "low SVR syndrome" and endogenous NO production was found. Patients with low SVR after cardiac surgery required a longer period of inotropic and ventilator support, with delay in discharge from the ICU. The risk and cost implications of this syndrome support further research.     

Follow-up immunogenicity of an inactivated hepatitis A virus vaccine in healthy children: results after 5 years

Long-term persistence of hepatitis A virus (HAV) serum antibody in vaccinated children has not been demonstrated in previous studies. To study the long-term immunogenicity to HAV vaccine, three doses of strain HM 175 HAV vaccine with 360 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay units were administered to 107 children, aged from 1.0 to 6.8 years, at 0, 1, and 6 months. The administration of one vaccine dose induced seropositivity (anti-HAV titer > or = 20 mIU ml-1) in 95% of all vaccinees at month 1. All subjects remained seropositive until month 6. The titers of HAV antibody remained above 20 mIU ml-1 in all subjects followed up to 60 months. The geometric mean titer (GMT) reached its peak (3802 mIU ml-1) at month 7, i.e. 1 month after the booster dose, and then declined until the end of follow-up at month 60 (661 mIU ml-1). A trend of higher GMT in female subjects persisted up to month 60. The changes of the GMT over time were best described by the regression equation: log (GMT) = 3.26-0.08 x (age in years) (r = -0.95, P = 0.014). According to this equation, the geometric mean concentration would reach 20 mIU ml-1 at around 24.5 years after the beginning of vaccination. In conclusion, those who completed the recommended three-dose inactivated HAV vaccination series remained seroprotective for at least 5 years. Theoretically, such a vaccination program can provide a protective period of over 20 years in children. This paper may be the first to describe at least 5-year immunogenicity of inactivated HAV vaccination in healthy children.     

Antibody and cell-mediated immune responses to booster immunization with a new acellular pertussis vaccine in school children

235 healthy 10-12 years old school children were randomly immunized with either a booster dose of diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (dTap) or diphtheria-tetanus (dT) vaccine. For this booster immunization designed for school children and adults, the quantities of Bordetella pertussis antigens in the dTap vaccine had been reduced to one third of those of the Infanrix vaccine (SmithKline Beecham) commonly used for infants. IgG antibodies and cell-mediated immune (CMI) responses to pertussis toxin (PT), pertactin (PRN) and filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) were assessed by an enzyme immunosorbent assay and in vitro proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, respectively. Before immunization, 55%, 80% and 99% of children had detectable serum IgG antibodies to PT, PRN and FHA, whereas CMI response was found in 35%, 27% and 50% of children, respectively. After immunization, a 20-30-fold increase in geometric mean level (GML) of antibodies to the pertussis antigens occurred and CMI response to PT, PRN and FHA was seen in 88%, 94% and 100% of children, respectively. Adverse reactions following the immunization were rare. The results show that booster immunization with an acellular pertussis vaccine with reduced concentrations of antigens induces both antibody and CMI responses and support further studies of this pertussis vaccine in school children.     

Adverse reactions after diphtheria-tetanus booster in 10-year-old schoolchildren in relation to the type of vaccine given for the primary vaccination

This prospective open study investigated adverse reactions in 527 schoolchildren to a diphtheria-tetanus (DT) booster given within a national vaccination programme at 10 years of age. Evaluation was based on those whose immunization records showed that they had received either three doses of an adsorbed DT vaccine (n = 388) or a non-adsorbed DT-pertussis vaccine (DTP) (n = 69) for primary series vaccination. No differences in systemic reactions to the booster between the two groups were observed. Local reactions were significantly (p < 0.001) more common 1 day after vaccination in children who had received DT for primary series vaccination: redness, 73% compared with 23%; swelling, 56% versus 15%; and itching, 47% versus 21%. One and 2 weeks after the booster, itching was still more pronounced in the group who had received DT for primary series vaccination (p < 0.001 and 0.014, respectively). The study indicates that there was a real basis for the increase in spontaneous notifications of local side-effects to the school DT booster in Sweden. The most likely cause for the increase seems to be the aluminium adjuvant in the vaccine given for primary vaccination, a late and unexpected consequence of a change in the infant immunization programme.     

Peritoneal dialysis in children under 5 years of age

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of intensive practice in table tennis on perceptual coincident timing. The main question was whether the perceptual demands encountered in fast ball sports produce modifications of the perceptual visual system. Expert table tennis players and novices were compared in a perceptual task which consisted of estimating, by pressing a key, the arrival of a moving stimulus at a target. The stimulus, which was presented either at constant velocity or at constant deceleration, reproduced as closely as possible the natural visual demands encountered in table tennis. The difference between the time of response and the time of arrival of the stimulus at a target position was measured over 40 trials for each of the 16 participants. The results showed no effect of expertise under the constant-velocity condition but an effect under the decelerative condition, indicating that experts were less trajectory-dependent than novices. This result was interpreted as reflecting a better adaptation of the perceptual system of experts to the constraints encountered during table tennis and specifically to the perceptual demands resulting from varied and decelerated ball trajectories. Finally, some limitations of the coincidence anticipation procedure are highlighted, concerning its use in practical settings for evaluating athletes or detecting sport talents, and the need for the simulation conditions during testing to reproduce as closely as possible the perceptual demands of real life is discussed.     

Passive smoking in children up to 5 years of age

Passive smoking is a major health risk in young children. We investigated the percentage of children with mothers and/or fathers who reported regular smoking. Data are the national and regional health surveys of the German Cardiovascular Prevention Study (GCP) conducted from 1984 to 1992 in West Germany. 2538 mothers aged 25-40 years were included. The prevalence of passive smoking in children due to smoking mothers was 33.6% 55.4% of the children up to 5 years lived in households with at least one smoking parent member. In 23.4% of these households both parents were smokers. If only one member of the parents smoked this was in two out of three cases the father. 28.2% of mothers with a child younger than one year were current smokers. This prevalence rate increased with the age of the youngest child up to 35.6% for mothers, whose youngest child was 5 years old. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the association between smoking behaviour and the following variables: mother's age, social class, family status, community size and year of the survey. It was found that lower social class members, unmarried or divorced mothers and inhabitants of large cities reported significantly more often regular current smoking. These results underscore the importance of special intervention programs to reduce smoking in parents with young children.     

Characterization of the neuropeptide Y5 receptor in the human hypothalamus: a lack of correlation between Y5 mRNA levels and binding sites

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a 36-amino-acid peptide that appears to play a central role in the control of feeding behavior. Recently, a cDNA encoding a novel NPY receptor subtype (Y5) was cloned from the rat and human hypothalamus, and shown to have a pharmacology consistent with NPY-induced feeding. We have subsequently cloned this cDNA from human hypothalamus and stably expressed it in CHO cells. Consistent with earlier reports, hY5 has a high affinity for NPY, [Leu31, Pro34]NPY, and NPY(3-36), but low affinity for larger C-terminal deletions of NPY and BIBP3226. High levels of hY5 mRNA were found in the human testis, brain, spleen and pancreas, with lower levels in several other tissues. In the human brain, hY5 mRNA levels were typically higher than hY2, but lower in comparison to hY1 receptor mRNA. To quantify the relative amounts of hY1, hY2 and hY5 mRNA in the human hypothalamus, we employed competitive RT-PCR. Interestingly, the relative amount of hY5 mRNA was substantially higher than either hY1 or hY2. However, pharmacological characterization of NPY binding sites in human hypothalamus membranes revealed predominantly the hY2 subtype. These data establish that while hY5 mRNA levels are very high in the human hypothalamus, conventional radioligand binding techniques do not detect hY5-like binding site. Whether hY5-like binding sites exist in the other human tissues that express hY5 mRNA (and what function hY5 has in those tissues) awaits future investigation.     

The effect of immunization route on rat serum and tear antibody responses to Chlamydia trachomatis

Using reliable displacement radiobinding assay (RBA) and ELISA, the existence of anti-human growth hormone autoantibodies (hGHAA) was confirmed in idiopathic hypopituitary patients with growth impairment. Six of 35 hypopituitary patients (17.1%) and 1/85 (1.2%) control children proved positive for hGHAA by RBA (>control mean + 3 SD). IgG isotype-hGHAA by ELISAIgG (> control mean + 3 SD) were positive for 6/34 (17.7%) and 3/85 (3.5% hypopituitary and control children, respectively. Due to an asymmetry to the right of the ELISAIgG distribution, an alternative cutoff based on a nonparametric method was obtained, and positive results for hypopituitary children increased to 10/34 (29.4%). Three of 34 hypopituitary patients but no control children were positive for hGHAA of IgM isotype. The hGHAA were detected in children with or without perinatal problems. These autoantibodies may represent markers of a major autoimmune process involving a portion of the anterior pituitary and may contribute to the development of hypopituitarism in over 15% of hypopituitary children.     

Influence of cellular location of expressed antigen on the efficacy of DNA vaccination: cytotoxic T lymphocyte and antibody responses are suboptimal when antigen is cytoplasmic after intramuscular DNA immunization

We examined the role of the cellular localization of antigen on the immune response after DNA immunization of mice with three forms of ovalbumin (OVA). DNA encoding OVA which was secreted (sOVA) generated 10- to 100-fold higher IgG responses with 50-and 100-fold higher levels of IgG1 than the cytoplasmic (cOVA) or membrane bound (mOVA) forms. An IgG2a predominance was seen only in cOVA and mOVA immunized mice. Although the antibody response was CD4+ T cell dependent, the differences in the antibody response could not be compensated for by provision of excess CD4+ T cell help in TCR transgenic mice. Together with our hapten-carrier studies, this would indicate that membrane or intracellular localization limits the availability of antigen for B cell priming which affects the magnitude and form of the antibody response. Surprisingly, stronger cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses were generated for sOVA or mOVA than for cOVA via intramuscular (i.m.) injection. Since a cytoplasmic antigen should have best access to the canonical class I pathway for antigen presentation, our results indicate that priming of CTL responses after i.m. DNA immunization is probably by cross-presentation of antigen by non-transfected professional antigen-presenting cells. In contrast, intradermal immunization with cOVA produced optimal CTL responses but, as with mOVA, suboptimal antibody responses. This, together with our ex vivo RT-PCR analysis showing similar mRNA levels from all three constructs 7 days post-immunization, argues against the differential CTL response for i.m. injection to be due to dose.     

Measles virus DNA vaccination: antibody isotype is determined by the method of immunization and by the nature of both the antigen and the coimmunized antigen

Plasmids encoding the measles virus hemagglutinin (HA) and nucleoprotein (NP) proteins inoculated into the skin of BALB/c mice by the gene gun method induced both humoral and cytotoxic lymphocyte class I-restricted immune responses. Although intramuscular immunization induces the immunoglobulin G2a (IgG2a) antibody isotype for both antigens, with gene gun immunization, the NP still generated mainly IgG2a and the major isotype induced by the HA was IgG1. Interestingly, gene gun coimmunization of HA and NP plasmids resulted in a dominant IgG1 HA response and the switching of antibodies generated against the NP to the IgG1 isotype.     

The effect of depression in an animal model on 5'-ectonucleotidase, antibody production, and tissue ascorbate stores

The learned helplessness model of depression in rats was tested. It was hypothesized that 5'-ectonucleotidase (NT), ascorbate, and antibody to sheeps' red blood cells (SRBC) are significantly reduced in rats who experienced uncontrollable shock, compared with rats who did not receive shock or could control it. During a learned-helplessness manipulation, antibody response to SRBC and NT values were unaffected. However, tissue ascorbate stores fell significantly, by 20-30%. The lack of effects on antibody responses and NT are discussed n terms of the acute nature of the stressor used in this model, as opposed to the more chronic stressors that have occurred in the human model.     

Polyethylene wear of the Optifix cementless acetabular component after 5 years

We describe seven patients who developed symptoms including severe headache, circumoral paresthesia, and facial flushing during high-dose carmustine (BCNU) infusion as part of the preparative regimen for autologous peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplantation for metastatic breast cancer. Five patients responded to pain medications, including partial and complete opiate receptor agonists. Premedication of subsequent doses of BCNU with corticosteroids, pain medications, or benzodiazepines lessened, but did not prevent the same symptoms from recurring. The incidence and mechanism of this toxicity are unknown, but this adverse syndrome should be considered when administering high-dose BCNU infusions.     

Psychosocial status of children with diabetes in the first 2 years after diagnosis

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the pattern of adjustment over time of a cohort of children with newly diagnosed diabetes compared with a cohort of peer-selected children without diabetes over the first 2 years after the diagnosis of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Children (n = 89 with IDDM, n = 53 without IDDM) ages 8-14 years were studied with the Children's Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, Child and Adolescent Adjustment Profile, Self-Perception Profile for Children, and a general health scale. Initial data were collected within 6 weeks of the diagnosis of IDDM and at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months thereafter. RESULTS: There were no demographic differences between the two groups. Initially, children with diabetes were more depressed, more dependent, and more withdrawn than their peers. By 1 year postdiagnosis, there were no significant differences in psychosocial status between the two groups. By 2 years postdiagnosis, depression, dependency, and withdrawal were significantly higher in children with diabetes than in their peers without IDDM. Self-perceived competence remained similar between the two groups at all time points. CONCLUSIONS: After an initial period of adjustment, children with IDDM have equivalent psychosocial status to children without IDDM, but by 2 years after diagnosis, they have experienced twice the amount of depression and adjustment problems as their peers. Interventions should be aimed at this critical period between 1 and 2 years postdiagnosis.     

Factor analysis of the HK-WISC at 11 age levels between 5 and 15 years.

The Hong Kong Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (HK-WISC), a Cantonese version of the WISC—R, was factor analyzed across 11 age groups (5–15 yrs) in the standardization sample of Chinese children (N?=?1,100). The 3 factors—Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Organization, and Freedom From Distractibility—identified in the WISC-R also emerged. The distractibility factor appeared to be less stable across age levels. Departure from the hypothesized Arithmetic/Digit Span/Coding triad of loadings for this factor was apparent at ages 5, 10, 13, and 15 yrs. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antimalarial effect in vitro and lack of modulating effect of desipramine and imipramine

Pulmonary hemorrhage (PH) is a rare but potentially life-threatening manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In this report we describe a 13 year old girl with PH as the sole presenting clinical manifestation of her SLE. Her serology was diagnostic of SLE and one year after presentation she developed arthritis. She had a rapid serologic but delayed clinical response to combination therapy of intravenous pulse methylprednisolone, pulse cyclophosphamide and daily prednisone. Awareness of the possibility of pulmonary hemorrhage as a presentation of SLE may aid in the diagnosis and early, aggressive management of this condition.