Reduced bactericidal activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa of blood neutrophils from patients with early adult respiratory distress syndrome.

This study investigated the bactericidal capability of circulating neutrophils from blunt trauma patients admitted to an Intensive Care Unit against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Among those patients, two groups were considered and compared: patients who developed adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and patients who developed only pneumonia. Peripheral blood samples were drawn as soon as a diagnosis of pneumonia or ARDS was made, followed by the isolation of neutrophil cells and assessment of bacteria phagocytosis and killing. The results demonstrated that in patients with ARDS, phagocytosis and killing efficiency were significantly impaired in comparison with patients with pneumonia and healthy controls. A possible dysregulation of reactive oxygen species production involving the release of humoral mediators in early ARDS may be involved.

Long-term stability of individual differences in sustained attention in the early years.

The goal of this longitudinal study was to explore whether early measures of attention and inattention would be predictive of later attentiveness and whether there was any evidence of stable individual differences in attentiveness. Both full-term and preterm children were observed at 1, 2, and 3.5 years in free play and in more structured situations. For the group as a whole, and for full-terms separately, quantitative measures of inattention at 2 years were predictive of comparable measures at 3.5 years. For preterms separately, quantitative measures of inattention at 1 year were predictive of both behavior and the mothers' rating on the Conners Hyperactivity subscale at 3.5 years. Global, qualitative ratings of attentiveness at 1 and 2 years were predictive of mothers' ratings on the Conners at 3.5 years for the group as a whole and for full-terms separately. For full-terms only, the global ratings of attentiveness at 1 and 2 years were also predictive of 3.5-year quantitative measures of behavior. These data provide an encouraging base for further investigation of early individual differences in attentiveness and of possible early precursors of later attention deficits.

The influence of adult intervention on infants' level of attention.

The effects of adult intervention on infants' level of attention to objects were studied with 10-month-old infants. After a baseline measure of spontaneous attention was obtained, infants were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions (low, medium, high intervention, or no-intervention control). Level of intervention was controlled by systematically varying the manner and frequency with which objects were presented, the extent to which the experimenter talked to the infant, and physical proximity. Infant attention was defined as duration of time spent examining objects. The overall duration of infant attention increased during medium intervention when compared to the control group. Baseline attention was then used to separate low and high attenders. Low attending infants attended more in medium and high intervention than in the low condition, while high attending infants were unaffected by intervention. The results show that level of intervention interacts with the child's spontaneous tendency to focus attention on objects.