***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: OBJECTIVE To determine whether clinical trials originating in certain countries always have positive results . DATA SOURCES Abstract s of trials from Medline ( January 1966-June 1995 ) . STUDY SELECTION Two separate studies were conducted . The first included trials in which the clinical outcome of a group of subjects receiving acupuncture  was compared to that of a group receiving placebo , no treatment , or a nonacupuncture intervention . In the second study , r and omized or controlled trials of interventions other than  acupuncture  that were published in China , Japan , Russia/USSR , or Taiwan were compared to those published in Engl and . DATA EXTRACTION Blinded review ers determined inclusion and outcome and separately classified each trial by country of origin . DATA SYNTHESIS In the study of acupuncture  trials , 252 of 1085 abstract s met the inclusion criteria . Research conducted in certain countries was uniformly favorable to acupuncture ; all trials originating in China , Japan , Hong Kong , and Taiwan were positive , as were 10 out of 11 of those published in Russia/USSR . In studies that examined interventions other than acupuncture , 405 of 1100 abstract s met the inclusion criteria . Of trials published in Engl and , 75 % gave the test treatment as superior to control . The results for China , Japan , Russia/USSR , and Taiwan were 99 % , 89 % , 97 % , and 95 % , respectively . No trial published in China or Russia/USSR found a test treatment to be ineffective . CONCLUSIONS Some countries publish unusually high proportions of positive results . Publication bias is a possible explanation . Research ers undertaking systematic review s should consider carefully how to manage data from these countries Abstract Varicella , or chickenpox , is very communicable and has been shown to be transmitted to nearly 90 % of household contacts . Severe varicella infections with fatal complications have been noted in children receiving corticosteroids  despite the administration of varicella-zoster immune globulin ( VZIG ) . The use of post-exposure acyclovir prophylaxis in immunocompetent children exposed to a household contact with varicella has been shown to decrease the transmission rate of varicella significantly . We studied the safety and efficacy of acyclovir prophylaxis as an adjunctive preventive measure in 8 children ( 10 separate exposures ) receiving corticosteroids for renal disease . Four children ( 6 separate exposures ) served as controls . No adverse reactions were reported with the acyclovir prophylaxis . The maximum change between pre- and study serum creatinine levels was 0.1 mg/dl . None of the 8 patients who received acyclovir prophylaxis developed chickenpox . One of these 8 patients developed humoral immunity to varicella despite the absence of clinical infection . One of 4 patients who received VZIG prophylaxis alone developed chickenpox . These data support the use of acyclovir prophylaxis as an adjunctive measure to VZIG for the prevention of potentially serious varicella infection in children receiving steroids BACKGROUND Respiratory tract infections are among the most common diseases both in adults and children . METHODS This multicentre study , was carried out in 212 patients ( 118 adults with chronic respiratory diseases and 94 children with recurrent respiratory infections ) at six Italian study centres . It was performed to establish the efficacy of Lantigen B for the prevention of bacterial complications and /or reduction of associated symptoms .  Lantigen B is an oral product based on bacterial lysates of six different inactivated strains commonly involved in respiratory tract infections . RESULTS The results of prophylactic treatment with Lantigen B in the population investigated were as follows : - the mean incidence of recurrence in the pediatric patients over the 6-month observation period of the study was 1.643 in the placebo group and 1.211 in the Lantigen B group ( a relative reduction of 35.7 % ) ; - the mean incidence of recurrence in the adult patients over the 6-month observation period of the study was 0.73 in the placebo group and 0.56 in the Lantigen B group ( a relative reduction of 30.4 % ) . The improvement in other important parameters , such as the number of days with a high temperature , cough , and catarrh in the children and objective clinical findings at the lymph nodes of the neck , chest , and pharyngotonsillar region in the adults , provides further evidence of the efficacy of Lantigen B. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates Lantigen B 's effectiveness in the prevention of bacterial complications and suggests that it can be used in patients who are particularly at risk of infection ( children , the elderly , diabetics , and immunocompromised patients ) or those in whom an infection might aggravate a clinical picture that is already inherently complicated ( diabetics again , but also patients with heart , kidney , or liver disease ) Infection has been recognized as an important cause of morbidity and mortality in children with nephrotic syndrome . However , the incidence and severity of infection and the mechanisms responsible for the increased susceptibility to infection are still unclear in adults . We studied 86 consecutive adult patients with nephrotic syndrome but no diabetic nephropathy . Risk factors for infection were evaluated by logistic regression analysis . Infections were found in 16 patients ( 19 % ) , of whom six died of infection and two developed end-stage renal failure associated with infection . The relative risk for bacterial infection among patients with serum immunoglobulin G ( IgG ) levels below 600 mg/dL was 6.74 compared with that for patients with serum IgG levels over 600 mg/dL ( 95 % confidence interval , 1.22 to 36.32 ; P = 0.029 ) . In patients with  serum  creatinine  levels  over 2.0 mg/dL , the relative risk of bacterial infection was 5.31 compared with patients with serum creatinine levels below 2.0 mg/dL ( 95 % confidence interval , 1.08 to 26.09 ; P = 0.040 ) . Intravenous immunoglobulin ( 10 to 15 g ) was administered prospect ively every 4 weeks to 18 patients with serum IgG levels below 600 mg/dL until serum IgG levels increased to over 600 mg/dL. Administration of immunoglobulin result ed in a decreased rate of bacterial infections to a level equal to that in patients with endogenous levels over 600 mg/dL. These data indicate that hypogammaglobulinemia and renal insufficiency are independent risk factors for bacterial infection in adult patients with nephrotic syndrome . The effects of intravenous immunoglobulin suggest that maintenance of serum IgG levels over 600 mg/dL may reduce the risk of infection Abstract  Renal-biopsy specimens from Nigerian children with the nephrotic syndrome were studied by fluorescence microscopy after staining with fluorescein isothiocyanate-labelled antibodies against human immunoglobulins and complement ( β-1-C ) . In all patients bound immunoglobulin and complement were observed , characteristically in the form of granular deposits along the glomerular capillary walls . Electron microscopy showed deposition of immune complexes along the epithelial side of the glomerular basement membrane , and reactive changes in epithelial and endothelial cells . Antibody eluted from the kidney of one patient gave precipitates with preparations containing Plasmodium malariœ antigens , but no reaction with P. falciparum or normal kidney antigens . Immune complexes containing P. malariœ antigen are thought to play a causal role in the aetiology of the nephrotic syndrome of African children Children with sickle cell anemia have an increased susceptibility to bacterial infections , especially to those caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae . We therefore conducted a multicenter , r and omized , double-blind , placebo-controlled clinical trial to test whether the regular , daily administration of oral penicillin would reduce the incidence of documented septicemia due to S.pneumoniae in children with sickle cell anemia who were under the age of three years at the time of entry . The children were r and omly assigned to receive either 125 mg of penicillin V potassium  ( 105 children ) or placebo  ( 110 children ) twice daily . The trial was terminated 8 months early , after an average of 15 months of follow-up , when an 84 percent reduction in the incidence of infection was observed in the group treated with penicillin , as compared with the group given placebo ( 13 of 110 patients vs. 2 of 105 ; P = 0.0025 ) , with no deaths from pneumococcal septicemia occurring in the penicillin group but three deaths from the infection occurring in the placebo group . On the basis of these results , we conclude that children should be screened in the neonatal period for sickle cell hemoglobinopathy and that those with sickle cell anemia should receive prophylactic therapy with oral penicillin by four months of age to decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with pneumococcal septicemia OBJECTIVE To evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of varicella vaccine in children with nephrotic syndrome , including those taking low-dose , alternate-day prednisone . STUDY DESIGN Prospect i ve , open-label , multicenter clinical trial of varicella vaccine in a 2-dose regimen in US and Canadian children ( 12 months to < 18 years ) with nephrotic syndrome . Varicella Zoster Virus ( VZV ) antibody levels were measured after the first and second vaccine dose and yearly for 2 years . Patients were monitored for adverse reactions to vaccine , exposure to varicella , dermatomal zoster , and chickenpox . RESULTS Twenty-nine children , mean age 4.9 ( SD 1.9 ) years , 45 % receiving every-other-day steroids , received 2 vaccine doses . All patients seroconverted and had VZV antibody levels considered protective against breakthrough varicella ( > or=5 gpELISA units ) after 2 doses . At 2-year follow-up , all patients retained detectable antibody , and 91 % ( 21 of 23 ) had levels > or=5 gpELISA units . There were no adverse events associated with vaccination . CONCLUSIONS Varicella vaccine was generally well tolerated and highly immunogenic in children with nephrotic syndrome , including those on low-dose , alternate-day prednisone In order to study the preventive efficiency of IVIgG on nosocomial infection(NI ) , 54 cases of the children with nephrotic syndrome(NS ) were r and omly divided into 2 groups , test group(n = 22 ) and control group(n = 32 ) . Routine treatment was adopted to all cases . Besides the routine treatment , the test group was injected with IVIgG(100 - 300 mg.kg-1.d-1 ) for 2 - 3 days . The results showed that the NI rate of test group ( 13.6 % ) was significantly lower than that of the control(46.88 % ) ( P < 0.05 ) , and the hospital days of the test group(27.33 + /- 15.51 ) d was significantly shorter than that of the control(64.50 + /- 18.52 ) d ( P < 0.05 ) . These suggest that IVIgG , as one of the ways to prevent NI , can improve the immune state and effectively prevent the NI in the children with NS 
    Output:
    
REVIEW ERS ' CONCLUSIONS IVIG , thymosin and TIAOJINING may have positive effects on prevention of nosocomial or unspecified infection with no obvious serious adverse events in children with nephrotic syndrome .
However the method ological quality of all trials was poor , the sample sizes small and all studies were from China , and thus there is no strong evidence on the effectiveness of these interventions