Primary congenital cervical neuroblastomas are very rare. A history of upper aerodigestive compromise with Horner syndrome can be of value for the early diagnosis of this lesion. Congenital neuroblastomas usually have a favorable outcome. Like all the other clinically relevant groups of neuroblastomas, management should take into consideration the biological findings of each tumor, which predicts outcome than other clinical findings.

In the era of PCV7, the incidence of pneumonia in infants younger than 36 months with high FWS and WBC count greater than 20 x 10(9)/L seems to be lower than that previously reported. However, this is not a uniform group because the incidence of pneumonia increases in infants older than 12 months and with higher ANC and serum CRP level.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the main cause of chronic hepatitis worldwide. With the implementation of blood product screening for HCV, mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT) has become the main route of acquisition of HCV in children. We aim to describe the seroprevalence of HCV infection among pregnant women and the rate of and risk factors for HCV MTCT in our setting.A prospective observational study was conducted on all children born to HCV-infected mothers from January 1999 to December 2005 in a pediatric teaching hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Informed consent was obtained from each mother and no intervention in the delivery procedure or feeding after birth was made, except on HIV-HCV coinfected mothers.In our center, anti-HCV antibodies are routinely measured during the first trimester of pregnancy by thirdgeneration enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA; Axsym HCV version 3.0, Abbott, Wiesbaden, Germany), and positive results are later confirmed by means of a thirdgeneration recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA version 3.0, Chiron, Emeryville, CA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques (HCV-RNA viral load quantification; HCV Monitor, Roche Molecular Systems, Basel, Switzerland; limit <600 IU/mL).Variables relevant to this study include the mother's age and the HCV mode of transmission; third trimester HCV viral load and alanine aminotransferase (ALT; normal range: 2-36 IU/mL) plasmatic levels; gestational age at birth, mode of delivery, total duration of labor, and the duration of membrane rupture; and the infant's gender, birth weight, and type of feeding.In accordance with current guidelines [5], the children were considered to be HCV-infected if positive HCV antibodies persisted beyond the age of 18 months and/or they had two or more positive qualitative PCR results. HCV infection was excluded on the basis of two or more negative PCR qualitative results and/or HCV antibody seroreversion at or after 18 months. Indeterminate infection status was applied to children not fulfilling any of these criteria.Categorical variables were expressed as percentages, and continuous variables as means and standard deviations. Seroprevalence rate and other proportions of interest, along with their 95% confidence intervals, were estimated.During the study period, 128 out of 26,214 pregnant women were found to be HCV-infected, i.e., a prevalence of 0.49% (95% CI: 0.40-0.57). There were 144 children born to these 128 mothers, including three sets of twins and one set of triplets, and 11 pairs of siblings. Data regarding gestation, birth, and neonatal variables are summarized in Table 1. Most of the 18 HIV-HCV co-infected mothers, who accounted for 21 gestations and 22 newborns, received combined antiretroviral treatment and underwent elective cesarean section (17 out of 21 and 12 out of 21 gestations, respectively). All of the infants received prophylactic Eur