Medical management of children with Down's syndrome

Prenatal diagnosis and termination of pregnancy: perspectives of South African parents of children with Down syndrome

“…Children with DS present with intellectual disability and possibly congenital malformations including heart defects (Marder and Dennis 1997). As DS is common and carries a burden of ongoing medical management for those affected, it has led to the development of prenatal screening policies in most countries, including SA (Bryant et al 2006).…”

Nutritional supplementation in Down syndrome: theoretical considerations and current status

“…Therefore, it is hypothesised that an overexpression of SOD causes free radical mediated damage and that this may contribute to the learning disability and early onset of Alzheimer's disease which are typical of DS. The following, which will be considered in turn, support the above hypothesis: (1) there is an increase in SOD activity, (2) there is evidence of increased lipid peroxidation, (3) there is a compensatory increase in the activities of GSH-Px and the hexose monophosphate shunt (HMPS).…”

“…Down syndrome (DS) is the most common inherited cause of learning disability 1 , and affected individuals are more prone to infections, leukaemia, congenital heart disease and other anomalies, thyroid dysfunction, early senescence and Alzheimer's disease 2 . These complications create a heavy burden for carers of individuals with DS and the social and health services.…”

Impact of Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program on Respiratory Function and Exercise Tolerance in Subjects with Down Syndrome

“…Down syndrome subjects have an excess of respiratory problems due to many contributing factors such as immune dysfunction, hypotonia, neuromuscular weakness of respiratory muscles that lead to low vital capacity with decreased ventilatory pump. Along with this, immune dysfunction also might account for the high incidence of respiratory problems commonly seen in subjects with Down syndrome [16]. Respiratory therapy helps to restore or maintain the cardio-respiratory functions in DS subjects who have respiratory problem due to neurological, musculoskeletal and impaired ventilatory pump [17].…”