Infantile autism. I: A prospective study of the diagnosis

A prospective study was made of 200 consecutive children to evaluate the usefulness in the diagnosis of infantile autism of the behavioral scale reported by Clancy and coworkers in 1969. On this scale seven or more of 14 behavioral manifestations must be present before a diagnosis of autism can be made. Using this scale alone, 48 of the 200 children studied were "scale positive", i.e. could be considered autistic. However, further study of this group showed that only one child fulfilled the classical criteria of Kanner (1943) for a diagnosis of early infantile autism. Scale "positivity" was found to correlate with mental retardation and to be associated with other developmental defects, especially learning disorders and hearing loss.

Growth hormone: metabolic clearance rates, integrated concentrations, and production rates in normal adults and the effect of prednisone

A constant withdrawal pump was used to determine the integrated concentration of growth hormone (ICGH) which was used in conjunction with the metabolic clearance rate (MCR) of growth hormone (GH) to calculate the GH production rates (GHPR) in normal adults, acromegalics, and normal controls receiving prednisone. The mean ICGH for 22 premenopausal females on no medication was 3.0+/-1.6 ng/ml (sd) which is significantly lower (P < 0.005) than the mean of 6.6+/-2.9 for 10 women receiving oral contraceptives and significantly higher than the means of 1.5+/-0.75 for 5 postmenopausal females (P < 0.05) and 1.8+/-1.0 for 16 adult males (P < 0.01) which are comparable. The mean GHPR's in mg/24 hr per m(2) for the four groups are: normal females = 0.52+/-0.24 (sd), females receiving contraceptive pills = 1.65+/-0.58 (P < 0.005), postmenopausal females = 0.26+/-0.12 (P < 0.025), and adult males 0.35+/-0.23 (P < 0.025).Three untreated acromegalic patients had ICGH's of 59, 82, and 93 ng/ml and GHPR's ranging from 14.5 to 17.9 mg/24 hr. Prednisone in a dose of 20 mg t.i.d. for 8 days significantly decreased both the ICGH and GHPR. Alternate day prednisone (60 mg in a single q.o.d. dose) resulted in less consistent inhibition of GH release which may play a role in the more normal growth seen in children receiving q.o.d. prednisone.

Lipid films as transducers for detection of antigen-antibody and enzyme-substrate reactions

The transverse electrical impedance of thin lipid films separating two aqueous saline solutions containing a small concentration of antibodies or enzymes decreases markedly and reversibly after immunological and enzymatic reactions involving such protein molecules, which presumably are adsorbed to the lipid-water interface.