Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is the most common vertically transmitted disease with the rate of the infection ranging from 0.2 to 2.4% in newborn infants. Congenital CMV infection ...causes multiorgan affection, but the most severe and permanent sequelae are those affecting central nervous system such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, sensorineural hearing loss, chorioretinitis and seizures as a result of direct interference of the virus with neurogenesis. The time of acquiring infection is strongly connected to the level of child’s disability. Infection in early pregnancy results in severe neurological sequelae, while later infection has less prominent signs. Radiological findings show connection between onset of infection and brain imaging, from lissencephaly, pachygyria, polymicrogyria, schizencephaly, calcification, cerebellar hypoplasia and/or hypoplasia/agenesis of corpus callosum as a result of an early infection, to white matter abnormalities including disturbed myelination as a result of a late infection. We present nine patients with proven congenital CMV infection and malformations of cortical development and their computed tomography/magnetic resonance
(CT/MRI) findings along with clinical assessments. According to CT/MRI results we assume that two of our children with lissencephaly had an early onset of infection. The other seven with less severe cortical dysplasia in form of pachy/polymicrogyria were probably infected later. Cerebellar hypoplasia and/or calcifications in our patients also confirm an early onset of infection. Developmental outcome in all of our children was poor: moderate to severe psychomotor retardation has been diagnosed in all children; five of them have developed cerebral palsy (four have bilateral spastic
and one dyskinetic) and one is estimated to have minor motor dysfunction. Seven out of nine developed epilepsy, chorioretinitis
was found in three of them and sensorineural deafness in two of them. All of our children, except one, were presented by symptomatic infection, yet only four of them were recognized at birth. Therefore, congenital CMV infection should be considered as one of the reasons for childhood disability more often.
Lenticulostriate vasculopathy (LSV) is an ultrasound (US) visible lesion of the brain, which appears as echogenic streaks or spots in the arteries of thalamus and basal ganglia. LSV has varied ...etiology. Transfontanelar Color Doppler (TFCD) can easily display lenticulostriatal blood flow and assess: stage I LSV with present flow within echogenic changes and stage II LSV in which the flow disappears, despite a presence of streaks and spots, which at this stage most probably correspond to calcification. The objectives of this study are to determine: (1) Whether there are differences in distribution (unilateral or bilateral) and presence (during first year of age) of TFCD flow between congenital CMV infection positive and negative group of children with LSV; (2) Could US and TFCD findings of LSV be an indication for further investigation of possible congenital CMV infection, because of their variable and often adverse neurodevelopmental outcome? We examined and followed-up 98 infants with LSV. One group (37/98) with congenital CMV infection and second (61/98) negative. All infants had clinical signs of neuromotor delay and ultrasound and TFCD markers of LSV. Our study shows that most of the patients from both groups had TFCD visible flow at the age of 0–4 months. In majority of them in both groups, at the age of 5–8 months, there was no more visible flow. TFCD showed no statistically significant difference among congenital CMV infection positive group and negative group, nor in youngest age period (0–4 months), nor in later course of flow in LSV, unilaterally or bilaterally. Although the LSV presents nonspecific marker for intracranial infection (ICI), all infants presenting with LSV should be evaluated for possible ICI. Thus, the Doppler findings of LSV in infants require a detailed examination, monitoring and follow-up of neuromotor outcome.
A steam explosion is a physical event which can occur when two fluids are mixing and the temperature of one fluid is higher than the boiling point of the other. Steam explosions are an important area ...of study in nuclear engineering because the conditions for a steam explosion are fulfilled during some scenaria of severe nuclear reactor accidents, when the molten core comes into contact with the coolant water. Research is mainly focused on the steam-explosion premixing-phase since it determines the extent of the steam explosion. In order to discover how the steam-explosion premixing-phase simulation results are influenced by the accuracy of the numerical methods used for solving the multiphase-flow equations a simulation code named ESE (Evaluation of Steam Explosions) has been developed. With ESE a number of simulations of premixing-phase experiments, where different jets of cold or hot spheres are injected into a water pool, have been performed. Each experiment has been simulated with a first order accurate upwind method and the high-resolution method, which is second-order accurate. The simulation results and available experimental data have been compared.
