Cost of living for infants weighing 1,000 grams or less at birth.

This article reports the in-hospital cost of caring for 75 infants weighing 1,000 gm or less at birth who were born during the 2 1/2-year period between January 1973 and June 1975. Thirty infants (40%) survived. Nineteen of 27 infants tested (70%) appear to be neurologically and developmentally "normal" at 1 to 3 years of age. Hospital charges were adjusted to September 1976 rates and corrected for a 94% collection rate. Physicians' fees represented less than 5% of the total bill and were not included. The average adjusted daily and total costs for the 45 infants who died were $825 and $14,236, respectively. The average adjusted daily and total costs for the 30 survivors were $450 and $40,287, respectively. The average adjusted total cost per "normal" survivor was $88,058. It is our belief that the outcome justifies this expense. Society, however, must be the ultimate judge.

Otologic complaints in temporomandibular joint syndrome.

Complaints of diminished hearing or reduced speech discrimination frequently accompany temporomandibular dysfunction. There is no consensus as to the mechanism of their occurrence or the alteration of these symptoms with the treatment. We studied 12 subjects with internal derangement of the temporomandibular joint (treated surgically) and nine subjects with myofascial pain disorder (treated medically), and we found no difference between the groups in pretreatment audiometric findings or in their degree of otologic symptoms. Similarly, there were no differences in posttreatment audiometric measures and there were no significant treatment effects. Furthermore, there was no correlation between subjects' complaints of reduced hearing sensitivity or discrimination and audiometric results. The apparently significant reduction in symptoms experienced by some subjects in the absence of audiometric change suggests the operation of unmeasured factors in their response to treatment.

Purple Blotch, Caused by Alternaria porri, on Leek Transplants in California.

In 1997, a foliar disease was detected on leek (Allium porrum) grown as transplants in California greenhouses. Initial symptoms consisted of small (less than 5 mm in diameter), circular, white leaf spots. Spots later enlarged, and became elliptical to oblong in shape and purple with tan borders in color. When spots coalesced, the leaf tips desiccated and wilted. Singly borne, brown conidia from leaves were obclavate in shape with slender, unbranched beaks extending from the narrow end of the spore body. Spore body dimensions measured 81 to 120 (96 mean) µm × 14 to 19 (16 mean) µm, and beaks measured 11 to 56 (30 mean) µm × 3 to 6 (4 mean) µm. Spore bodies had 6 to 9 transverse septa and occasionally 1 longitudinal septum. The fungus was identified as Alternaria porri (Ellis) Cif. (1). The same fungus was also consistently isolated from the margins of the spots. For pathogenicity tests, isolates were grown for 6 weeks on potato dextrose agar under a combination of one cool white and one Vita-Lite fluorescent tube on a 12 h light/dark cycle. Conidial suspensions (1.0 × 10 e 4 conidia/ml) were sprayed onto 2-month-old leek (cvs. Broad London and Gavilan). Plants were incubated in a moist chamber for 48 h and then kept in a greenhouse. After 14 days, leaf spots similar to the original symptoms developed on inoculated plants, and the pathogen was reisolated. Control plants sprayed with distilled water remained symptomless. The experiment was repeated and the results were similar. The isolates also caused leaf spots on onion (Allium cepa cv. Stockton Early Yellow) and chives (Allium schoenoprasum). This is the first report of purple blotch caused by A. porri on commercially grown leeks in California. The occurrence of this disease on leeks in enclosed greenhouses strongly suggested that the primary inoculum was seed-borne. Reference: (1) M. B. Ellis and P. Holliday. C.M.I. Descriptions No. 248, 1970.