Pediatrics
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We investigated the role of environmental and hereditary factors in determining whether persistent childhood wheezing phenotypes had an early or late onset. ⋯ Inheritance seems to be of prime significance in the cause of persistent childhood wheeze. Environmental exposure in early life may combine with this tendency to produce an early onset of persistent wheeze. Absence of these environmental factors might delay but not prevent the onset of wheeze in children with atopic heredity.
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Educating the pediatrician of the 21st century: defining and implementing a competency-based system.
The final product of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Outcomes Project is to improve health care through ensuring the competence of physicians during their training and beyond. Its success depends on a paradigm shift to a competency-based model of medical education. This article presents an overview of the model and describes the first stages of this multistep transition in a university setting. Our hope is to raise awareness of the impact on the pediatric community at large and provide a foundation on which other educators can continue to build. ⋯ Having defined the benchmarks and thresholds for the 6 ACGME domains of competence, we are well positioned to move to step 3: developing the necessary tools to evaluate competence. The move to competency-based education impacts the entire pediatric community. Lessons learned from our experience may be generalized and thus be of value to the community at large.
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To examine the association of positive report on a maternal depression screen (PDS) with loss or reduction of welfare support and foods stamps, household food insecurity, and child health measures among children aged < or =36 months at 6 urban hospitals and clinics. ⋯ Positive maternal depression screen status noted in pediatric clinical samples of infants and toddlers is associated with poorer reported child health status, household food insecurity, and loss of federal financial support and food stamps. Although the direction of effects cannot be determined in this cross-sectional survey, child health providers and policy makers should be aware of the potential impact of maternal depression on child health in the context of welfare reform.
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Case Reports
Management of a severe carbamazepine overdose using albumin-enhanced continuous venovenous hemodialysis.
Carbamazepine intoxication is common in the pediatric population. Highly protein-bound, carbamazepine is not removed efficiently through conventional hemodialysis. We describe the use of albumin-enhanced continuous venovenous hemodialysis (CVVHD) in a 10-year-old girl who developed coma and respiratory depression due to an intentional carbamazepine overdose (peak drug level of 44.8 microg/ml; therapeutic range: 8-12 microg/ml). ⋯ In contrast, with albumin-enhanced CVVHD, we observed a half-life of 7 to 8 hours. The patient recovered rapidly and was discharged from hospital <4 days from the time of ingestion with no complications or neurologic impairment. Because the cost-benefit analysis was also favorable relative to other therapeutic options, albumin-enhanced CVVHD may be the optimal treatment of toxic-level ingestion of carbamazepine.