Subject(s)
Breast Feeding , Rickets/prevention & control , Vitamin D/therapeutic use , Female , Humans , InfantABSTRACT
We tested the hypothesis that a deuterium oxide (D2O) tracer could discriminate among patterns of clinically significant, imperfect compliance during drug trials. A model was developed to predict deuterium concentration during multiple dose regimens. After developing a regression equation to predict one of the model parameters for children, we selected healthy children (N = 20) at random to receive one of five 10-day D2O regimens. Five urine samples were obtained from each child during 15 days and analyzed for deuterium level by mass spectrometry. Each child's height, weight, age, and the first four urinary deuterium levels were used to estimate the amount and timing of deuterium administration. These estimates were compared with the five regimens to determine the closest match between estimate and regimen. The closest matching regimen was the regimen actually administered to 19 (95%) of the 20 children. Two of these children had D2O administration estimates that could be confused with another regimen. The correlation between the model's predicted levels and the measured levels of all urine samples was 0.96. We conclude that a D2O tracer shows excellent promise as a quantitative method of assessing compliance with liquid medications under specified conditions.
Subject(s)
Deuterium , Patient Compliance , Water , Child , Child, Preschool , Clinical Trials as Topic , Data Interpretation, Statistical , Deuterium/urine , Deuterium Oxide , Female , Humans , Infant , Male , Pilot Projects , Reference StandardsABSTRACT
Longitudinal growth data on children who developed obesity during childhood reveal a distinct tendency for height gain to accelerate coincident with or after the onset of excessive weight gain. The magnitude of the relative height increment is related to the degree of overweight. Overnutrition accelerates growth, just as undernutrition retards it.
Subject(s)
Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena , Growth , Obesity/metabolism , Adolescent , Body Height , Body Weight , Child , Child, Preschool , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , New YorkSubject(s)
Learning Disabilities/etiology , Pyloric Stenosis/complications , Starvation/complications , Child , Humans , InfantABSTRACT
The model of starvation in this study was the medical condition of congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis. Pyloric stenosis involves a period of brief starvation in early infancy, is unrelated to socioeconomic conditions, and is easily correctable. A number of specific learning abilities together with the general adjustment of 50 subjects, 5 to 14 years old, who had PS were studied and compared to those of 44 siblings and 50 matched controls. Learning ability was negatively correlated with the degree of severity of the starvation. Starvation resulting in reduction of more than 10% of the expected body weight in infancy was associated with poorer learning abilities, especially those involving short-term memory and attention.