Biomedical subjects
S F Dellert
Publications and source records attributed to S F Dellert.
Bone mineral content in children with short bowel syndrome after discontinuation of parental nutrition.
To determine whether children with short bowel syndrome had evidence of metabolic bone disease, total body bone mineral content was measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry in 18 patients and 36 age-, sex-, and race-matched control subjects. Children with short bowel syndrome had decreased bone mineral content compared with control subjects; however, it was not significant when adjusted for differences in weight and height. Whether these children will have normal bone accretion throughout puberty is not known.
Four cases of severe hepatotoxicity associated with pemoline: possible autoimmune pathogenesis.
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The 13C-xylose breath test for the diagnosis of small bowel bacterial overgrowth in children.
BACKGROUND: We evaluated the clinical utility of the 13C-xylose breath test for the diagnosis of small bowel bacterial overgrowth in children. METHODS: To determine the optimal dose of 13C-xylose, 29 healthy children, 3 to 12 years old, were randomly assigned to receive one of three doses of 13C-xylose (10, 25, or 50 mg). After an overnight fast, the oral dose of 13C-xylose was administered, and breath samples were collected every 30 minutes for 4 hours. Samples were analyzed for 13CO2 by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. Using the 50 mg dose, we then performed nine breath tests with concurrent duodenal bacterial cultures in 6 children, 3 to 12 years old, with short-bowel syndrome (n = 2), immunodeficiency states (n = 1), and motility disorders (n = 3). RESULTS: Excretion of 13CO2 in breath peaked at 2.5 hours in all three control groups. The 50-mg dose produced the highest median peak and the smallest range of 13CO2 excretion in breath within each time period. The time of peak 13CO2 excretion in breath varied among the diseased children; however, the six patients with small-bowel bacterial overgrowth (2 x 10(5)-3.5 x 10(5) gram negative rods) all had peak 13CO2 that exceeded the maximum breath 13CO2 level in breath of the control subjects at the corresponding time period (100% sensitivity). Of the three patients with negative cultures, two had negative breath test results and one had positive results (67% specificity). One subject had normalization of both duodenal culture and breath test results after antibiotic treatment of small-bowel bacterial overgrowth. CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary results suggest that with a dose of 50 mg 13C-xylose, breath test results reliably predict small-bowel bacterial overgrowth in susceptible children.
Diarrheal disease. Established pathogens, new pathogens, and progress in vaccine development.
Although much progress has been made in reducing the morbidity and mortality of infectious diarrhea through the use of oral rehydration, progress in preventive measures, such as vaccine development, has been slow. Despite the plethora of candidate vaccines developed, there has not been an effective vaccine ready for general use, particularly in developing countries, during the past decade, perhaps in part because of the as-yet-undefined pathophysiology of many of these pathogens, as well as the complexity of the gastrointestinal immune system. It is hoped that more rapid progress will be made during the next decade as our understanding of these factors increases.
Feeding resistance and gastroesophageal reflux in infancy.
Resistance to oral feedings occurring during the course of chronic gastroesophageal reflux (GER) in infants has received little attention in the literature. Accordingly, we reviewed the clinical courses of 600 infants of < 24 months of age with GER seen over an 8-year period to determine the prevalence and course of this problem. After excluding infants with severe neurologic disease, craniofacial disorders, or a history of esophageal surgery, 25 infants were found to have resistance to oral feedings that was severe enough to warrant tube feedings for nutritional support. Sixteen of these 25 infants had a history of resistance to oral feeding antedating a diagnosis of GER, whereas nine developed resistance to feeding during the course of therapy. Gestational age, age at onset of GER symptoms, severity of GER, presence/severity of esophagitis, type of medical therapy, need for fundoplication, or postfundoplication complications were similar in these two groups. When the clinical records of these 25 infants were compared to an age- and sex-matched infant population with GER but without feeding resistance, no differences were noted in severity of GER or the presence/severity of esophagitis. However, failure to thrive and the need for fundoplication were significantly more common in the feeding resistance group (p < 0.001). Among those infants with neurodevelopmental evaluation, mild delay was seen more commonly in the infants with feeding resistance but fell short of statistical significance (p = 0.08). Our observations suggest that resistance to oral feedings is an uncommon but severe problem associated with GER in infancy.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)