OBJECTIVE To determine the indication and necessity of echocardiographic assessment and therapeutic interventions in critically ill children. METHODS A total of 140 children, including 75 mechanically ventilated (MV) and 65 spontaneously breathing (SB) children, who were admitted consecutively from March to August 2013 were evaluated prospectively. Data regarding the indication for echocardio...

BACKGROUND Chronic urticaria severely affects quality of life. To date, no gold standard has been established to measure the burden of suffering, which often correlates poorly with the skin symptoms observed in patients with chronic urticaria. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of psychological factors on the course of urticaria. METHODS Health-related quality of life was assessed in 95 pa...

OBJECTIVE To correlate lactate clearance with Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) mortality. METHODS 45 (mean age 40.15 mo, 60% males) consecutive admissions in the PICU were enrolled between May 2012 to June 2013. Lactate clearance (Lactate level at admission - level 6 hr later x 100 / lactate level at admission) in first 6 hours of hospitalization was correlated to in-hospital mortality an...

Introduction: Use scoring systems facilitates and enables decision making about the appropriate therapeutic treatment (right evaluation and classification of the patient group at high risk), which can also increase the likelihood of survival rationalize a decision on the need and intensity of therapy. Aims: To analyze the Pediatric Logistics Organ Dysfunction Scoring system (PELOD) and Pediatri...

The aim of this prospective follow-up study wasto determine the incidence and risk factors of iatrogenic illness and the outcome among cases admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit in ateaching hospital in Libya. The incidence of iatrogenic complications was 22.9% among 423 cases admitted over a 1-year period. Human error (18.4%) followed by machine defects (4.5%) were the most common ca...

Purpose. To measure the changes in fusional vergence in Chinese children with intermittent exotropia (IXT) and the association with the control of IXT. Methods. Ninety-two patients with IXT (8-15 years old) were compared with 86 controls. Exodeviation control was evaluated using the Revised Newcastle Control Score. Angle of deviation was measured using prism and alternate cover testing at dista...

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to derive a novel prognostic score for mortality in paediatric meningococcal sepsis (MS) based on readily available laboratory markers. METHODS A multicentre retrospective cohort study for the consortium set and a single centre retrospective study for replication set. The consortium set were 1,073 children (age 1 week to 17.9 years) referred over a 15-ye...

BACKGROUND Pseudobulbar affect (PBA) is a neurological condition characterized by involuntary, sudden, and frequent episodes of laughing and/or crying, which can be socially disabling. Although PBA occurs secondary to many neurological conditions, with an estimated United States (US) prevalence of up to 2 million persons, it is thought to be under-recognized and undertreated. The PBA Registry S...

OBJECTIVES Outcome prediction for pediatric heart surgery has focused on mortality but mortality has been significantly reduced over the past 2 decades. Clinical care practices now emphasize reducing morbidity. Physiology-based profiles assessed by the Pediatric Risk of Mortality (PRISM) score are associated with new significant functional morbidity detected at hospital discharge. Our aims were...