ABSTRACT
Measurement of salivary IgA is useful for the non-invasive assessment of secretory immunity, especially in children and infants. In our study, the influence of three commonly used methods ("spitting", "suction", "Salivette") of saliva collection on the yield of salivary IgA concentration was analysed in 54 samples of salivary secretion collected from six healthy children according to a cross over protocol. Nephelometrically determined IgA concentrations were significantly lower in saliva collected by the Salivette device (mean +/- SEM: 23 +/- 7 mg/l) than in saliva collected by the suction (46 +/- 8 mg/l) or spitting method (48 +/- 8 mg/l). Salivary flow assessed by the spitting method was inversely correlated with salivary IgA concentration. We conclude that salivary IgA assessment is influenced by the saliva collection method, and that studies dealing with this topic should accurately describe the methods used for collecting saliva so that data may be properly compared.
Subject(s)
Immunoglobulin A, Secretory/analysis , Saliva/immunology , Child , Evaluation Studies as Topic , Female , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
Lyme borreliosis is currently suspected to be capable of mimicking nearly all known neurologic symptoms and disease entities. The goal of our study is to define the associated anamnestic, clinical and laboratory findings in aseptic meningitis and Lyme borreliosis in childhood by a meta-analysis of recent literature and of our own data. We defined by means of 63 cases derived of 10 publications and own data a list of mainly rather unspecific parameters like insidious onset, fever, mild meningism, encephalitic symptoms and cranial nerve involvement. Mere neurologic presentation without ECM, arthritis or even an anamnestic insect-bite seems to be most frequent. Retrospective studies, however, can not sufficiently characterize the clinical picture of aseptic meningitis in Lyme borreliosis.
Subject(s)
Lyme Disease/diagnosis , Meningitis, Aseptic/diagnosis , Child , Humans , Lyme Disease/complications , Lyme Disease/epidemiology , Meningitis, Aseptic/etiology , Meta-Analysis as TopicABSTRACT
An eight year old boy was admitted to our ward with a history of abrupt onset of rapidly progressive gait disorder, nausea, vertigo and vomiting. The clinical as well as the laboratory findings suggested the diagnosis of acute cerebellar ataxia. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), however, showed marked demyelinisation in the cerebellar region and visual evoked potentials were pathologic. After immunosuppression the patient promptly improved clinically and the lesions depicted by MRI disappeared almost completely.
Subject(s)
Cerebellar Ataxia/complications , Cerebellum/pathology , Demyelinating Diseases/diagnosis , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Pons/pathology , Acute Disease , Cerebellar Ataxia/pathology , Child , Demyelinating Diseases/complications , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
Plasma thiocyanate (SCN) was measured by means of a simple colorimetric method [8] in 328 persons (175 males, 153 females, aged 5-68 years) as part of an ongoing prospective trial on the influence of SCN defined maternal smoking on fetal development. The interassay coefficient of variation for synthetic K thiocyanate solutions was 3.1% (n = 25%); the intrassay coefficient of variation was 1.2% (n = 15). Mean SCN levels were significantly lower in 226 nonsmokers (SCN 41.4 +/- 18.5 mumol/l) than 102 smokers (SCN 81.4 +/- 28.7 mumol/l; p less than 0.01). Of all the variables tested, a direct influence on SCN was found only in the case of diabetes mellitus and haemolytic blood samples (p less than 0.01), whereas age, sex, chronic diseases and nutrition had no effect on SCN. Mean maternal post partum SCN levels (n = 48) were significantly lower in non-smokers (30.2 +/- 11.2) than in smokers (59.3 +/- 23.1). There was a linear relationship between maternal venous plasma and fetal umbilical cord plasma SCN values (r = 0.88; p less than 0.01). Pregnant women had lower SCN levels than non-pregnant women. We conclude that SCN is an easy means of measuring and a reproducible parameter for quantifying smoking behaviour in pregnancy and in the general population.