The pandemic of the new coronavirus disease‐2019 (COVID‐19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), initially described in China, is challenging the health care ...systems of all countries. Every emerging disease raises many questions with a scarcity of answers since all its characteristics are still being discovered. In the case of SARS‐CoV‐2, most of the literature comes from adult patients. Children seem to be less affected. Pediatric patients diagnosed with COVID‐19 disease usually suffer a mild illness, with a low risk of complications, or mortality. Defining the role of children in the transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 is critical as some national infection control decisions involving children, such as school closures or social distancing, will probably impact the dynamics of the virus. To aid in the knowledge of COVID‐19 in children, this study presents an expert review of the literature published from 1 January to 28 May 2020, including peer‐reviewed and preprint nonpeer‐reviewed studies, along with some relevant articles afterward, summarizing ten key points that characterize the disease in children.
Although human infections caused by Mycobacterium mageritense are rare, there are some case reports involving sinusitis, pneumonia, and hospital-acquired infections in adults. We report a case of ...lymphadenitis caused by M. mageritense in a child in Spain.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We report a case of a 22-month-old Spanish girl who presented acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion (AESD). Serum procalcitonin (PCT) reached a maximum of 50.5 ng/mL ...on the first day whereas C-reactive protein (CRP) peaked at 1.21 mg/dL on the second. At the time of discharge, right spastic hemiparesis persisted. MR spectroscopy on day 23 revealed a decrease in N-acetylaspartate and an increase in choline. To our knowledge, we report the first case of AESD in Europe. These findings support the role of PCT and PCT/CRP ratio in the early diagnosis of AESD and correlation of MR spectroscopy findings with neurological outcome.
Objective To assess whether dexamethasone (DXM) decreases the time to recovery in patients with parapneumonic pleural effusion. Study design This was a multicenter, randomized, double blind, ...parallel-group, placebo-controlled clinical trial of 60 children, ranging in age from 1 month to 14 years, with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and pleural effusion. Patients received either intravenous DXM (0.25 mg/kg/dose) or placebo every 6 hours over a period of 48 hours, along with antibiotics. The primary endpoint was the time to recovery in hours, defined objectively. We also evaluated complications and adverse events. Results Among the 60 randomized patients (mean age, 4.7 years; 58% female), 57 (95%) completed the study. Compared with placebo recipients, the patients receiving DXM had a shorter time to recovery, after adjustment by severity group and stratification by center (hazard ratio, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.10-3.45; P = .021). The median time to recovery for patients receiving DXM was 68 hours (2.8 days) shorter than patients receiving placebo (109 hours vs 177 hours; P = .037). In exploratory subgroup analysis, the median time to recovery for patients with simple effusion receiving DXM was 76 hours (3.1 days) shorter than for patients with simple effusion receiving placebo ( P = .017). The median time to recovery for patients with complicated effusion receiving DXM was 14 hours (0.5 days) shorter than for patients with complicated effusion receiving placebo ( P = .66). The difference in the effect of DXM in the 2 severity groups was not statistically significant ( P = .138 for interaction). There were no significant differences in complications or adverse events attributable to the study drugs, except for hyperglycemia. Conclusion In this trial, DXM seemed to be a safe and effective adjunctive therapy for parapneumonic pleural effusion. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov : NCT01261546.
Prognostic markers for fetal transmission of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection during pregnancy are poorly understood. Maternal CMV-specific T-cell responses may help prevent fetal transmission and ...thus, we set out to assess whether this may be the case in pregnant women who develop a primary CMV infection.
A multicenter prospective study was carried out at 8 hospitals in Spain, from January 2017 to April 2020. Blood samples were collected from pregnant women at the time the primary CMV infection was diagnosed to assess the T-cell response. Quantitative analysis of interferon producing specific CMV-CD8+/CD4+ cells was performed by intracellular cytokine flow cytometry.
In this study, 135 pregnant women with a suspected CMV infection were evaluated, 60 of whom had a primary CMV infection and samples available. Of these, 24 mothers transmitted the infection to the fetus and 36 did not. No association was found between the presence of specific CD4 or CD8 responses against CMV at the time maternal infection was diagnosed and the risk of fetal transmission. There was no transmission among women with an undetectable CMV viral load in blood at diagnosis.
In this cohort of pregnant women with a primary CMV infection, no association was found between the presence of a CMV T-cell response at the time of maternal infection and the risk of intrauterine transmission. A detectable CMV viral load in the maternal blood at diagnosis of the primary maternal infection may represent a relevant biomarker associated with fetal transmission.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Catheter-related bacteremia (CRB) is a significant cause of morbidity, resource expenditure and prolonged hospital stays in patients with long-term catheters, whose numbers have increased ...considerably in recent years. Antibiotic lock therapy reaches high concentrations in the catheter, allowing good penetration into the biofilm, being vancomycin the most commonly used one in gram-positive infections. Several authors have recently reported the superior in vitro efficacy of daptomycin compared with vancomycin, especially for eradicating biofilms. Although there is some data on the use of daptomycin for antibiotic lock in animal models and adults, there are no data on its use in children.
A descriptive study was conducted in a tertiary hospital, including patients younger than 16 years in whom daptomycin lock therapy was employed between 2018 and 2022.
We report three pediatric patients in whom CRB was confirmed on admission by paired blood cultures positive for CoNS sensitive to vancomycin, daptomycin and linezolid. All patients started vancomycin lock therapy and systemic antibiotic therapy with proven sensitivity for the isolated bacteria, without achieving negative blood cultures. Due to the persistence of positive cultures, vancomycin lock therapy was replaced by daptomycin, and blood cultures turned negative, with no relapses or need for catheter removal.
The use of daptomycin lock therapy could be considered in children with CoNS catheter infection, especially when other antibiotic lock therapy had failed.