Percentile head circumference charts, from six to eleven years of age, for boys and girls are presented. These can be used to monitor the head circumference of Malaysian children.
126 Malaysian children, 65 boys and 61 girls from higher income families were followed-up regularly from birth to six years of age in the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur. The study confirms the observations of previous studies that growth velocity of head circumference is most rapid during the first few months of infancy and then decreases so that by the fifth year of life the increment is minimal. It also confirms the fact that boys have bigger head circumferences than girls. The paper also presents the head circumference distance and velocity percentile charts which can be used to monitor the head circumference of Malaysian children.
One species of lace bug Cochlochila bullita Stål (Heteroptera: Tingidae) was found heavily infested Orthosiphon aristatus Blume Miq., an important medicinal plant in Malaysia. A morphological re-description of C. bullita was done in order to facilitate the identification of this oligophagous insect pest. Five variables, body length and width, antenna length, tibia length and head width were measured from 15 samples from each stage. Among these variables, body length and width were used to construct the ratio for species identification; while body lengths with the other three variables were used to distinguish the nymphs from each developmental stage. The measurements of four traits except the antenna length showed significant differences between the development stages. And thus suggest the body width, tibia length and head width were suitable parameters used to distinguish the nymphal stages. However, the result on the growth factor showed only the sizes of the head followed a more constant growth rate with growth ratios (1.21-1.39) lie between the Dyar's ratio. Body length and width ratio for the adult female and male was 1.51 +/- 0.00 and 1.59 +/- 0.01, respectively. These data are pertinent for identifying developmental stages and to distinguish the species of the lace bug.
A prospective study was carried out to (i) compare head growth patterns of 103 very low birthweight (VLBW, < 1500 g) Malaysian infants and 98 normal birthweight (NBW, 2500- < 4500 g) controls during the 1st year of life; and (ii) examine the relationship between neurodevelopmental outcome at 1 year of age and occipito-frontal head circumferences (OFC) at birth and at 1 year of age in VLBW babies. When compared with those of NBW infants at birth, mid-infancy and 1 year of age, the mean OFC ratios (observed/expected OFC at 50th percentile) of VLBW infants were significantly lower (p < 0.001). Small-for-gestational-age (SGA) VLBW babies had significantly lower mean OFC ratios than their appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) VLBW counterparts at birth (p < 0.001), but this difference was no longer seen at mid-infancy or at 1 year of age. Logistic regression analysis showed that abnormal late neonatal cranial ultrasound findings (odds ratio 8.5, 95% confidence interval 4.12-22.07; p < 0.001) and each additional day of oxygen therapy (odds ratio 1.15, 95% confidence interval 1.00-4.45; p = 0.045) were significant risk factors associated with neurodevelopmental disability at 1 year of age, while mean OFC ratios at birth or at 1 year of age were not. Poor postnatal head growth per se did not predict disability, but probably reflected the consequences of "brain injury" as evidenced by abnormal brain scans.