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Abstract
The aim of this study was to establish reference values and factors associated with serum AFP elevation in infants. Five hundred twenty-four samples collected from infants up to the age of 2 years at the University Hospital Düsseldorf (Germany) were analyzed. At birth mean serum AFP levels were 41,687 ng/ml in 256 term babies and 158,125 ng/ml in 90 premature babies born before the 37th gestational week, excluding samples from children with factors known to be associated with AFP elevation. In the first 4 weeks of life, AFP levels decreased by 50% in 5.1 days in term babies. Between day 180 and 720 of life, AFP levels up to 87 ng/ml were within the 95.5% interval (assumed logarithmic normal distribution) with a mean of 8 ng/ml without a further decline. By the age of 2 years the infants of this study had not reached adult serum AFP levels (0-6 ng/ml).
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M. E. G. Blohm
Joyce Laing works in the Department of Child and Family Psychiatry, Playfield House, Cupar, Fife, and is a Consultant Art Therapist to Psychiatric Hospitals and Prisons and Chairwoman of the Scottish Society of Art and Psychology.
Dr Niculescu Dan, Centrul de Reumatologie, Str. J. (F)ucick no. 5, Bucuresti, Romania
Anni Vilppula, Department of Medicine, Paimio Hospital, Preitilä, Finland
G. Tausch, Department of Rheumatology, Municipal Hospital of Vienna-Lainz, Wolkersbergenstraße 1, A-1130Wien, Austria
Dr Guido Gothoni, Medica Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., P.O. Box 325, SF-00101 Helsinki 10, Finland
A. Elman, Dept. of Rheumatology, Karolinska sjukhuset, Stockholm, Sweden
Hannu Paitälä, Rheumatism Foundation Hospital, Heinola, Finland
Jonas Jonsson, National Bacteriological Laboratory, S-105 21 Stockholm, Sweden