Prophylactic administration of fluconazole during the first six weeks of life is effective in preventing fungal colonization and invasive fungal infection in infants with birth weights of less than 1000 g.

Viral infections were the dominant risk factor for wheezing among children hospitalized before 3 years of age. By comparison, a large majority of the wheezing children age 3 to 18 years had striking atopic characteristics that may be critical as a risk factor for hospitalization and an adverse response to viral infections, especially infections caused by rhinovirus.

Parkinson's disease seems to occur more commonly in men than women based primarily on studies of death rates and prevalence. In recent years, several population based incidence studies of Parkinson's disease that included sex data have been conducted in a variety of populations around the world. To investigate whether these incidence studies suggest an increased risk of Parkinson's disease in men, a meta-analysis was performed of the differences in incidence of Parkinson's disease between men and women reported in seven studies that met the inclusion criteria. A significantly higher incidence rate of Parkinson's disease was found among men with the relative risk being 1.5 times greater in men than women. Possible reasons for this increased risk of Parkinson's disease in men are toxicant exposure, head trauma, neuroprotection by oestrogen, mitochondrial dysfunction, or X linkage of genetic risk factors. Whether there is a sex difference in risk for Parkinson's disease (PD) is controversial.1 PD seems to occur more commonly in men than women based primarily on studies of death rates and prevalence. 1 2 Death rates, however, do not accurately reflect the incidence of PD 3 because of inaccurate diagnoses on death certificates. Likewise, prevalence data are problematic. Prevalence studies are subject to potential sex differences in survival, access to health care, access to the system whereby cases were ascertained for inclusion in the study, and sex differences in the underlying population. 1Because incidence of PD represents the number of new cases developed or diagnosed during a specific time interval within a predefined population at risk, incidence measurements are more direct and unambiguous epidemiological estimates of risk for developing PD than are death rates or prevalence. Incidence data from well defined populations obviate a number of concerns with prevalence data, such as differential mortality between men and women.In recent years, several population based incidence studies of PD that included sex data have been conducted in a variety of populations around the world. To determine whether these incidence studies suggest an increased risk of PD in men, we performed a meta-analysis of the differences in incidence of PD between men and women reported in these studies. METHODSThe Medline database was searched for population based ascertainment studies of PD average annual incidence rates adjusted for sex and age. The studies included in our metaanalysis met six criteria: (1) The study must have been published after 1980. Inclusion of studies published before 1980 would lead to the inclusion of neurodegenerative disorders that would be recognised now as not being PD (for example, progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy, etc). Also, older studies are more likely to be contaminated with cases of post-encephalitic parkinsonism than studies published after 1980; (2) studies must have excluded secondary and/or drug induced parkinsonism; (3) studies must have ascertained at least 50 cases of PD; (4...

In asthma, focal airflow impediment within the lungs can be markedly persistent over time, regardless of disease severity or treatment.