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To investigate the association between social risk factors and access to emergency health services, 333 children, with a medium age of 39.1 months, have been recruited. 31.2% of these children had at least one social risk factor. After 12 months through a phone call we evidentiated that children with social risk showed an access to emergency services about double (relative risk factor more than double) in respect to children with no social risk factors.

The natural history of asthma is not well known; its origin may go back to just after the birth. The aims of this study are: 1) studying the evolution of the symptomatology of a group of children suffering from recurrent asthmatic bronchitis of a moderate-severe level in the first two years of life; 2) inquiring some risk factors conditioning the evolution of it. One hundred children, aged from 16.6 to 53.4 months, suffering from moderate to severe recurrent asthmatic bronchitis, have been checked at the follow-up at the Broncopneumologic and Allergic Pediatric Unit of the SS Annunziata Hospital (Naples). Among the 100 children checked, 25 have been dropped at the follow-up; the difference between the sample checked and the one dropped at the follow-up is not statistically relevant. Four are variables examined: age, allergic medical history, number of asthma episodes, breast feeding, association or not of atopic dermatitis. The evolution of the symptomatology has not been propitious, as, at the end of three years of analysis, 73.3% of the 5-year-old patients had still persistent asthma. The risk factors of asthma recurrence are: parents smoking habits with a relative risk of 18 times more in patients with disadvantageous evolution (R.R. = 18) and at a less measure the overcrowding of the bedroom (R.R. = 1.5). The age at the onset in of the symptomatology, the positive familiar medical history for allergic illness, the breast feeding and the atopic dermatitis have not resulted statistically different between the group with advantageous evolution and the one with disadvantageous outcome. Passive smoking is a very disadvantageous prognostic factor; it may contribute to the disadvantageous evolution of the moderate to severe asthmatic bronchitis in the early childhood towards the recurrent or chronic bronchial asthma of the late childhood.

One hundred-twenty-six pediatricians were questioned about their attitudes concerning the practice of immunization, their feelings about the new vaccines (measles, mumps, german measles, hepatitis b) and about the pertussis vaccine. 80% of them reported that indications and contraindications were still unclear: Down's syndrome and atopic eczema are still thought to be real contraindications--despite the mass of papers suggesting that they are not so--, moreover 95% of the participants persists into the unnecessary evaluation of the antibody title following hepatitis b immunization. We conclude that it would be wise to periodically diffuse to pediatricians update recommendations about the extended immunization program, especially in our region, were still an high number of children are not properly immunized.

One hundred-eight infants from atopic families were admitted to the study. Each had at least one first-degree relative affected by asthma or rhinitis, conjunctivitis, eczema, cow's milk protein intolerance. All infants not breast fed were hypoallergenic formula. 46 infants were breast fed, 39 were bottle fed by the ordinary formula and 23 received the hypoallergenic one. No other food was introduced up to 6 months. Cow's milk proteins, egg, poultry and fish were introduced after 6 months. All infants were followed up to 24 months. Incidence of allergic diseases up to 24 months was not significantly different among the 3 groups.

Good results have been achieved through a comparative study carried out on a sample of 362 cultures in order to verify the attendibility of a new method of research on bacteriuria. The new Urotube system follows the theorical bases of dip-inoculum of a substratum of a medium of culture. The changes which were verified after the simultaneous use of the two methods on the same sample, were very slight and meaningless for the crossed calculation of the chi2. The second part of the research refers to the qualitative side and test out the bacterial species found out us the considered samples. There were no important varieties between the studies of the following AA. (Kass, Schito) and ours; most infectious processes have, as ethiological agents, gram-negative bacteria, named Enterobacteriacae, which are much more numerous than gram-positive bacteria. It seem however important to underline a slight change of this ratio; it was verified during our test, infact we recorded a percentage of gram-positive higher than the percentage recorded by Kass and Schito.

The use of MRT in craniofacial pathology has been evaluated above all as regards the possibility offered by this technique for studying the soft parts with better results than already sophisticated investigations like the CT scan. The technique's limitations are the long duration of the investigation, the impossibility of carrying it out in carriers of pacemakers, the inadequate visualisation of the bone and calcifications, the fairly high cost; the advantages are the fact that ionising radiation is not employed, the ureter sensitivity for the soft parts, the good vessel evaluation and the possibility of obtaining oriented sections in every space plane without moving the patient. The use of MRT is therefore rich in prospects.