Chronic urticaria and associated coeliac disease in children: a case-control study.

UNLABELLED: Celiac disease (CD) and chronic urticaria (CU) are both sustained by immune mechanisms, but there are so far few data on their clinical association. We performed a case-control study to determine the occurrence of CD in urticaria and matched control children, and to assess the clinical relevance of this association. Children and adolescents were diagnosed to have severe chronic idiopathic urticaria in the presence of hives for more than 6 wk poorly or not responsive to oral antihistamines. Other known causes of urticaria had to be excluded. A matched control group without urticaria was enrolled. In both groups, the presence of CD was searched by assaying antitransglutaminase and antiedomysial antibodies, and confirmed with endoscopic intestinal biopsy. Results. CD was diagnosed and confirmed in 4/79 (5.0%) of children with CU and in 17/2545 (0.67%) of the controls (p = 0.0003). In the four children with urticaria and CD the gluten free diet (GFD) lead to complete remission of urticaria within 5-10 wk, whereas the disappearance of serological markers occurred in longer times (5-9 months). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of CD in children with CU was significantly more frequent than in controls. GFD resulted in urticaria remission. CD may be regarded in such subjects as a cause of CU.

[The validity of screening for hypertension in school-age children. A cross-sectional study of a sample of 861 pupils of the towns of Local Health Unit No. 22 of Vittoria (Sicily)]. / Validità dello screening per ipertensione in età scolare. Studio trasversale su un campione di 861 alunni dei comuni dell'U.S.L. 22 di Vittoria (Sicilia).

In order to define the validity of a screening program for hypertension in schools, aiming to prevent an hypertensive status in adult age, we screened 861 children from schools on the area of our Medical District (U.S.L. 22--Vittoria--Sicily). The object of our study is to search for risk factors of hypertension, detectable at school age and, if existing, which age is more suitable for a screening program. We randomly sampled 861 children from different schools, aging 6, 10 and 13 years. The first step was to define the prevalence of hypertension and obesity in the sample, and the correlation between the two factors (transversal study). We found an overall prevalence of obesity at 6, 10, and 13 years of 6.69%, 18.22% and 17.7% respectively. The prevalence of hypertension was 4.01%, 11.4%, and 6.98% at 6, 10 and 13 years respectively. The second step is to create a personal record of each child, which will be followed up to the age of 18 years, containing familial and nutritional informations, periodic evaluations of height, weight, blood pressure and biologic sampling (longitudinal study). Our preliminary results confirmed the correlation between obesity and hypertension, although they do not help to clarify why the prevalence of hypertension decreases from 10 to 13 years whereas obesity maintains the same prevalence at the mentioned ages.

[Hemangioendothelioma of the liver in the newborn: description of 2 cases]. / Emangioendotelioma del fegato in età neonatale: descrizione di due casi.

The infantile hemangioendothelioma of the liver is a rare benign vascular tumor that accounts for some 10% of all primary hepatic masses. Two cases were seen at the Department of Pediatric Surgery of Vicenza's Hospital in the last ten years. Both of patients were females and presented in neonatal period asymptomatic. The first patient was found to have hepatomegaly by pediatrician at six weeks of age, the second was an incidental finding following ultrasound neonatal screening. The Authors outline some difficulties met with differential diagnosis between benign versus malignant hepatic tumors. Explorative laparotomy was considered necessary in both the patients. Liver biopsy was the only surgical procedure performed in the nonresectable tumor. Treatment with corticosteroids finally proved to be successful to determine progressive involution of the tumor. In the resectable form, left hepatic lobectomy was successfully performed because of the progressive size increase of the tumor.

Hematological findings in 375 Sicilians with Hb S trait.

We evaluated hematological parameters in 375 Sicilian adults with Hb S trait: Hb S levels were 41.91 +/- 2.65% in males and 40.92 +/- 2.8% in females. RBC, MCV, PCV, MCH, MCHC and total hemoglobin levels were within the normal range. Only mean Hb A2 and Hb F levels were increased (Hb A2 = 2.78 +/- 0.2%; Hb F = 1.05 +/- 0.18%), although they remained inside the normal ranges when compared to healthy controls (Hb A2 = 2.48 +/- 0.19%; Hb F = 0.93 +/- 0.14%) (p less than 0.0005). We conclude that our population does not show the hematological abnormalities such as microcytosis and decreased Hb levels, observed in the Black, Indian, Saudi Arabian carriers, and that the presence of those abnormalities is probably related to the coexistence of alpha-thalassemia, rarely observed in Sicily.

Lymphocyte subsets in kala-azar.

We examined lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood from children with visceral leishmaniasis both in the active stage of the disease and after recovery. At diagnosis, CD2+ and CD4+ cells showed a significant decrease while CD8+ cells were significantly increased when compared with controls; CD4/CD8 ratio was inverted. All of these alterations returned to normal values 3 months after recovery.