Search

One fourth of the children who survive bacterial meningitis may have serious dysfunctions related to learning and behavior. Researchers tested 130 children with previous meningitis and 130 healthy children with respect to neuropsychological, behavioral, and academic performance. The survivors were averaged about 8 years of age and were evaluated an average of 6.7 years after their episodes of meningitis. Overall, nearly 27% of the children with meningitis had serious functional impairments. Typically, these were hearing problems, neurological and perceptive dysfunctions, lower intelligence scores, and a lack in fine motor skills. More acute meningitis resulted in higher disability than milder forms of the disease. As a result, 39% of all children with acute meningitis functioned at abnormally low levels., Objective. To determine the outcomes of bacterial meningitis in school-age survivors. Design. Prospective cohort study. Setting. Teaching pediatric hospital. Children. During 1983 through 1986, 158 meningitis survivors, ages 3 months to 14 years, treated at a single center were enrolled. Between 1991 and 1993, 130 children, 82% of the original cohort, were evaluated at a mean age of 8.4 years and a mean of 6.7 years after their meningitis. Outcome measures. Blinded neurologic, neuropsychologic, audiologic, behavior, and socio-demographic assessments were compared with those from grade- and sex-matched control children. Multivariate analyses adjusted for age at testing and socio-demographic variables. Results. There was a systematic increase in risk of abnormality or poorer functioning for children with meningitis, compared with control children, across all categories tested, which was significant for fine motor function, Intelligence quotient (IQ) scores, and tests of school behavior, neuropsychologic function, and auditory figure-ground differentiation. Eleven children who had experienced meningitis (8.5%) had major deficits (IQ, Despite potent new antibiotics and advances in care of the critically ill, neurologic sequelae can develop in some children after an episode of bacterial meningitis. A metaanalysis of 1602 prospectively [...]

Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is a pathogenic gram-negative bacterium associated with human disease, especially in young children. Protective immune response to Hib results from antibodies developed against the polyribosylribitol phosphate (PRP) capsular polysaccharide of the bacterium. Several investigators in the study of immune response to Hib have produced human monoclonal antibodies to PRP. Only two previous groups have reported the generation of murine anti-PRP monoclonal antibodies using either immunizing mice with inactivated Hib bacteria or a combination of in vivo and in vitro immunization of mice with PRP conjugate antigen (PRP-D). In this present study, we generated murine anti-PRP monoclonal antibody secreting hybridomas for the first time by simple in vivo immunization with PRP conjugate antigen (PRP-T). The anti-PRP antibodies from one hybridoma clone (B10) are further characterized and potential applications are discussed.