Articles: disease.
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Anthropometry (the use of body measurements to assess nutritional status) is a practical and immediately applicable technique for assessing children's development patterns during the first years of life. An evaluation of their growth also provides useful insights into the nutrition and health situation of entire population groups. Anthropometric indicators are less accurate than clinical and biochemical techniques when it comes to assessing individual nutritional status. ⋯ Intercountry trend comparisons are difficult for two main reasons. Firstly, the time between surveys is occasionally different and, secondly, despite efforts to standardize data analysis and presentation, different cut-off points have been used to calculate prevalence figures and estimate the extent of undernutrition. However, the use of identical cut-off points is not essential for making intercountry trend analyses since it is the general trends in growth deficit and nutritional status over time which are being evaluated.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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In a retrospective cohort study of survivors of cancer and of controls, we estimated the risk of infertility after treatment for cancer during childhood or adolescence. We interviewed 2283 long-term survivors of childhood or adolescent cancer diagnosed in the period from 1945 through 1975, who were identified at five cancer centers in the United States. Requirements for admission to the study were diagnosis before the age of 20, survival for at least five years, and attainment of the age of 21. ⋯ Chemotherapy with alkylating agents, with or without radiation to sites below the diaphragm, was associated with a fertility deficit of about 60 percent in the men. Among the women, there was no apparent effect of alkylating-agent therapy administered alone (relative fertility, 1.02) and only a moderate fertility deficit when alkylating-agent therapy was combined with radiation below the diaphragm (relative fertility, 0.81). Relative fertility in the survivors varied considerably according to sex, site of cancer, and type of treatment; these factors should be taken into consideration in counseling survivors about the long-term consequences of disease.
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A search of the medical literature published since 1950 disclosed 19 cases of probable AIDS reported before the start of the current epidemic. These cases retrospectively met the Centers for Disease Control's surveillance definition of the syndrome and had a clinical course suggestive of AIDS. The reports originated from North America, Western Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. ⋯ In two instances concurrent or subsequent opportunistic infection occurred in family members. All patients died 1 month to 6 years after the initial manifestation of disease. In view of the historical data, unrecognized cases of AIDS appear to have occurred sporadically in the pre-AIDS era.