Medicine
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Observational Study
Effectiveness of a radiation reduction campaign targeting children with gastrointestinal symptoms in a pediatric emergency department.
Children feature more active cellular division and a smaller body area, which leads to a greater radiation dosage accumulation. We tried to reduce radiation hazards by reducing unnecessary radiological studies in a pediatric emergency department (PED) through the radiation reduction campaign. Our campaign involved a reduction from 2 (erect and supine) to 1 ordered abdominal plain radiograph (erect). ⋯ The RV rate did not change (220 [2%] vs 56 [2%], respectively; P = 0.104). The slope of total RV rate changed from -0.01 to -0.05 (P = 0.132), and the slope of LOS changed from 0.001 to -0.352 (P = 0.243). The campaign to reduce abdominal radiograph orders in pediatric patients successfully reduced the abdominal plain film X-ray rate without on the RV rate and the LOS.
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Benign pneumoperitoneum (BPPT) is defined as asymptomatic free intraabdominal air or as pneumoperitoneum without peritonitis. Symptomatic free air requires surgical anagement, but management of asymptomatic pneumoperitoneum is controversial. In this study, we investigate the diagnosis and treatment of BPPT in children. ⋯ The diagnosis of BPPT mainly relies on clinical symptoms in patient, careful abdominal examination, abdominal X-ray combined with abdominocentesis, and the exclusion of gastrointestinal perforation for confirmation. Conservative treatment can cure the disease. Attention should be paid to distinguish with surgical pneumoperitoneum to avoid unnecessary surgical exploration.
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The HATCH score (hypertension <1 point>, age >75 years <1 point>, stroke or transient ischemic attack <2 points>, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease <1 point>, and heart failure <2 points>) was reported to be useful for predicting the progression of atrial fibrillation (AF) from paroxysmal to persistent or permanent AF for patients who participated in the Euro Heart Survey. The goal of the current study was to investigate whether the HATCH score was a useful scheme in predicting new-onset AF. Furthermore, we aimed to use the HATCH scoring system to estimate the individual risk in developing AF for patients with different comorbidities. ⋯ The incidence increased from 0.8 per 1000 patient-years for patients with a HATCH score of 0 to 57.3 per 1000 patient-years for those with a HATCH score of 7. After an adjustment for the gender and comorbidities, the hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of each increment of the HATCH score in predicting AF was 2.059 (2.027-2.093; P < 0.001). The HATCH score was useful in risk estimation and stratification of new-onset AF.
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The instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) closely related to fractional flow reserve (FFR) is a adenosine-independent physiologic index of coronary stenosis severity. We sought to evaluate whether iFR derived from coronary computed tomographic angiography (iFRCT) can be used as a novel noninvasive method for diagnosis of ischemia-causing coronary stenosis. We retrospectively enrolled 33 patients (47 lesions) with coronary artery disease (CAD) and examined with coronary computed tomographic angiography (CTA), invasive coronary angiography (ICA), and FFR. ⋯ ROC analysis identified an optimal iFRCT cut-off value of 0.82 for categorization based on an FFR cut-off value 0.8, and the diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of iFRCT were 78.72%,70.59%, 83.33%,70.59%, and 83.33%, respectively. Compared with obstructive CAD diagnosed by coronary CTA (AUC = 0.60), iFRCT yielded diagnostic improvement over stenosis assessment with AUC increasing from 0.6 by CTA to 0.87 (P < 0.01) and 0.90 (P < 0.01) when iFRCT plus CTA. In conclusion, iFRCT is a promising index improving diagnostic performance over coronary CTA for detection of ischemia-causing coronary stenosis.
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Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have been shown to be at increased risk for high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection of the anogenital tract. Furthermore, in the last decades, the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has increased the longevity of these patients who now live long enough to develop HPV-related cancers; hence, the impact of HPV infection on HIV-positive patients is of increasing concern. ⋯ This case stresses the importance of an accurate multidisciplinary follow-up in HIV-positive patients, including not only the routine medical, immunological, and virological evaluation, but also a periodical complete examination of the anogenital tract with cervicovaginal and anal cytology, colposcopy, high resolution anoscopy, and vulvar examination.