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Biomedical subjects

W Z Billewicz

Publications and source records attributed to W Z Billewicz.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1983

Malaria infection of the placenta in The Gambia, West Africa; its incidence and relationship to stillbirth, birthweight and placental weight.

The incidence of placental malaria at parturition and its effects on the conceptus have been investigated in The Gambia, West Africa. Malarious placentae occurred in 1300 (20.2%) of 6427 singleton births, in 32 (18.6%) of 172 sets of twins and in none of six sets of triplets. Plasmodium falciparum infections predominated; P. malariae or P. ovale infections were found in only nine instances. In the large group of single births placental malaria occurred less frequently (12.0%) in residents of urban than of other, more rural, communities (27.1%). In the former group incidence showed no clear change with season; in the latter group it was highest in the trimester following the end of the rains and lowest in the second half of the dry season. In both residential groups it was more frequent in primiparae (urban 16.1%; other 46.9%) than in multiparae (urban 8.9%; other 20.3%). The sex of the child did not influence malaria incidence. Dense placental infections were more frequent in primiparae. Stillbirth rates of singleton infants were significantly higher for males than for females, but no clear and consistent relationship between stillbirth and placental malaria was detected. Mean singleton birthweights were depressed by about 170 g in the presence of malaria; the deficits were statistically significant only among first born infants and tended to diminish progressively with increasing maternal parity. No distinct gradient linking birthweight with ascending density of placental parasitaemia was observed. Singleton birthweights of 2.5 kg or less occurred more frequently in association with malarious than non-malarious placentae and the association was more marked among first born than later birth rank infants. Differences between the weights of malarious and non-malarious placentae were small and not significant. The findings of the study are discussed in relation to the widely prevalent view that pregnancy exacerbates maternal malaria by attenuating acquired immunity.

Birth Weight↗
PubMed1978

Heritability of stature in a West African population.

Heritability of stature in a West African population is calculated from longitudinal data collected over 26 years. Statistical and analytical difficulties encountered in the study include those due to variation in stature with age, sex, recording and measuring, variation in number of offspring, variation in number of spouses, and heterogeneity of within-sibship variances. The structure of the population allows a half-sib analysis which is particularly useful in interpretation of the intrafamilial correlations and regressions. The heritability estimate of 0.6 appears lower than that from studies in European populations. The environmental contribution to the stature variance is pronounced, but is not unexpected in the light of the rigours of the traditional way of life in West African surroundings.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Skeletal maturation of Hong Kong Chinese children in the first five years of life.

This report describes the skeletal maturity during the first five years of life of 492 Chinese children in Hong Kong in a longitudinal study. Hand-wrist radiographs taken half-yearly were assessed by the Tanner-Whitehouse method and rated according to the TW1 20-bone self-weighting maturity score. Skeletal age was in advance of chronological age in both sexes, but significantly more so in females, especially between 18 months and three years. The relationship of the skeletal maturation of these children to various socioeconomic factors is discussed, including the effect of preferential child rearing in favour of males.

Age Determination by Skeleton↗
PubMed1976

The diets of preschool children in Newcastle upon Tyne, 1968-71.

1. Ninety-one families containing 140 children under 4 years of age at enrolment were studied. At 1-monthly intervals, the children were weighed and measured and qualitative information about feeding habits was obtained. Weighed dietary surveys for periods of 5 d were made at approximately 8 months, 3 years, and 5 years of age; there were forty-six failures in 260 surveys attempted. 2. At the four specified ages, mean energy intakes were 3-75, 5-03, 5-82 and 6-75 MJ (896, 1203, 1392 and 1613 kcal)/d respectively. At 8 months, milk products provided on average, 43% of the total energy intake, and commerical baby foods provided 17%. These values decreased to 21 and 2% respectively at 20 months and there was little further change therafter. 3. Average intake of energy and of most nutrients met recommended intakes (Department of Health and Social Security, 1969). Iron intakes were marginal, and vitamin D intakes were low. 4. The energy intake of boys was significantly higher than that of the girls at 3 years of age, but the boys were not significantly heavier. The energy intake of children from "manual-worker" families was higher than that from "non-manual" families. Similarly, the energy intake of children from larger families was higher than that of children from smaller families. 5. Energy intakes were correlated with body-weights and with rates of gain in weight. Irrespective of body-weight, "big eaters" at 20 months tended to be "big eaters" at 3 years also.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1976

Comments on the critical metabolic mass and the age of menarche.

Data from Frisch and Revelle (1971) and Frisch et al. (1973) are used to show that some of their biological conclusions relating body composition to age at menarche follow directly from arithmetical operations on the two observed items of information: weight and height. This emphasizes the dangers of drawing biological conclusions from derived, as opposed to observed, data. The hypothesis that an age-unrelated critical body weight triggers off menarche is examined in relation to preliminary data from a longitudinal study of adolescent girls. It is unacceptable because: (a) mean weights at menarche showed an upward trend with increasing age; (b) for given body weights the proportion of girls starting to menstruate increased with age; (c) at all ages the variation of body weight at menarche was as large as that among non-menstruating girls: (d) only 41 per cent of girls started to menstruate at weights 48 +/- 5 kg; and (e) eleven of the 20 girls whose weight exceeded 48 kg at the age 10-5-11 years did not start to menstruate although 1-1-5 years had elapsed since they attained the "critical" weight. Although no direct body composition data are presented the behaviour of skinfold suggests that body composition is unlikely to be the primary trigger of menarche.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Eruption of permanent teeth in West African (Gambian) children in relation to age, sex and physique.

Dental records of 635 West African (Gambian) children within the age range of 4.5-14 yr yielded 2108 examinations for boys and 1863 for girls. There was no difference between eruption ages of homologous permanent teeth on the left and the right side of the same jaw. Except for PM1 and PM2, teeth in the lower jaw erupted earlier. There was a clear sex difference in eruption age, which was earlier in females. Calendar age can be estimated from the state of permanent dentition, though the error of the estimate increases with the number of teeth, being about 0.5 years for 1 or 2 teeth and increasing to slightly over 1 year for 12 teeth or more. There was an association between the number of teeth erupted at a given age and height and weight of the children. Also children with fewer teeth at a given age contain a greater proportion of children below standard weight or height for that age. This effect disappeared when children were classified in terms of weight for height.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Foetal growth from 50 to 150 days of gestation.

Weight and several linear measurements have been related to postmenstrual age in a series of fresh, apparently normal foetuses, ranging in age from 8 to 21 weeks. Although the correlation between these variables and age was high, the prediction of foetal age from such measurements can never be precise, due in part to difficulties inherent in the concept of postmenstrual age. The average relationships agreed in general with those in previous reports, including those based on spontaneous abortion material.

Body Height↗
PubMed1975

Assessment of oral glucose tolerance data.

Characteristics of the 'clinical value index' (Harding et al., 1973) are examined. It is shown that the definition of the index makes it unsuitable for the comparative evaluation of various methods of assessing the results of an oral glucose tolerance test.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMed1973

New index for evaluation of oral glucose tolerance test results.

A simple numerical index is presented which describes the shape of an oral glucose tolerance response curve and appears to be a measure of the efficiency of homeostatic control. It is unaffected by the laboratory method of glucose estimation, the site of blood sampling, the amount of glucose given, and whether or not the patient has fasted overnight. The index satisfactorily differentiates clinically diabetic from non-diabetic individuals and seems to provide a sensitive method of describing small changes in glucose homeostatic control such as might occur, for example, in pregnancy.

Adult↗