Pediatrics

Article Abstract:

Genetic diagnosis and the development of genetic treatment for childhood diseases is changing the practice of pediatric medicine. The ability to directly affect the genetic defect that causes a disease means that practitioners can intervene before the disease occurs rather than treating the symptoms of the disease. Researchers have been able to identify defective genes and to alter some of them so that they become normal genes either soon after fertilization or in living people. Genetic information is available for a number of diseases including the common gene which causes cystic fibrosis. Current techniques of DNA analysis are capable of detecting up to 95% of the white North American carriers of the gene. Recombinant DNA technology is proving useful in treating children with several types of anemia as well as for treatment of children with growth retardation due to chronic kidney failure or growth hormone deficiency.

---

Pediatrics

Article Abstract:

DNA analysis and the problems of newborns have been the focus of pediatrics in 1991. A new economical test allows the rapid prenatal diagnosis of the fragile X syndrome, the most common cause of inherited mental retardation. Gaucher's disease, a genetic disorder which can, in its most severe form, cause neurological problems and death within the first two years of life, can be treated with enzyme replacement therapy or bone marrow transplants. Enzyme replacement is extremely expensive, but advances in biotechnology could lower the cost. Respiratory distress syndrome is one of the leading causes of illness and death in newborns, involving long and expensive hospitalization and treatment. Physicians are successfully treating infants, particularly of less than 30 weeks' gestation, with lung surfactant, which infants lack in adequate amounts. The cause and treatment of sudden infant death syndrome continues to be explored.

Diagnosis, Causes of, Fragile X syndrome, Sudden infant death syndrome, Respiratory distress syndrome, Gaucher's disease

---

Pediatrics

Article Abstract:

Exposure to cigarette smoke harms children by increasing the risk of infections and asthma. Twenty-seven percent of women of childbearing age smoke, which may cause low birth weight, premature rupture of membranes, sudden infant death syndrome and may lower their children's IQ by several points. Nebulized steroids have been effective in patients with croup who need to be hospitalized. Between 15% and 30% of the 7,000 infants are born each year to HIV-infected mothers develop the infection. Zidovudine therapy is effective in reducing the rate of transmission from HIV-positive mothers to their children. Of 364 births, a 67.5% reduction in HIV transmission was recorded for the infant group that received zidovudine orally for the first six weeks and whose mothers received treatment during labor and delivery.

Health aspects, Drug therapy, HIV infections, Pregnant women, Smokers, Pregnancy, Zidovudine, Passive smoking, HIV infection in pregnancy, Croup

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Economics
• Abstracts: Family medicine
• Abstracts: Otolaryngology - head and neck surgery

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.