[Correlation of clinical, radiologic and pathologic aspects of the thymus in newborn infants]. / Correlación clínica, radiológica y patológica del timo en recién nacidos.

The thymus of 30 autopsied neonates who died from different causes (hyaline membrane disease: 13 cases; severe infections: 11 cases; congenital malformations: 4 cases; severe asphyxia: 2 cases) were prospectively examined in order to look for the most frequent macroscopic and microscopic morphological changes in this organ. Findings were correlated with clinical and radiological data. In hyaline membrane disease patients moderate decrease of thymic weight and slight depletion of cortical lymphocytes as to reference values were observed; such changes were likewise seen in cases with malformations and severe asphyxia. Newborns who died from severe infections exhibited early and pronounced decrease of thymic weight as well as severe depletion of cortical lymphocytes, more noticeable at all times than in the remaining groups. It is concluded that the predominant finding in examined patients is thymic involution secondary to stress, whose intensity would depend upon the type and duration of the main disease, being most severe the longer the evolutionary time. The variability observed in thymic size of individuals with similar physical features and the lack of an accurate correlation between radiology and post mortem findings with respect to thymic size are remarkable.

Hipoplasia femoral y facies especial.Un sindrome de expresividad variable. / Femoral hypoplasia and unusual facies. A syndrome of variable expressivity

Se presentan 2 pacientes portadores del sindrome de hipoplasia femoral/facies especial. Ambos eran hijos de madres jovenes y sin antecedentes familiares de importancia. Se describen sus caracteristicas fenotipicas y se comparan con los anteriormente publicados, enfatizandose la variable expressividad del sindrome. Se discuten algunos aspectos referentes a su posible mecanismo de herencia

Correlacion manometrica, histologica e histoquimica en el estudio de megacolon en el nino. / Manometric, histological and histochemical correlation in the study of megacolon in children

Se practicaron 96 manometrias anorrectales en ninos con megacolon. En dieciseis los registros eran compatibles con enfermedad de Hirschsprung:en 12 la biopsia rectal por succion para determinar acetilcolinesterasa corroboro el diagnostico de aganglionosis. En 2 pacientes con manometrias no concluyentes, la actividad acetilcolinesterasica resulto altamente positiva,y en uno de ellos se obtuvo el diagnostico de displasia neuronal colonica mediante el estudio de la deshidrogenasa succinica