Pediatrics
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Comparative Study
Professionalism expectations seen through the eyes of resident physicians and patient families.
Resident physicians and patient families have not traditionally been involved in setting expectations for professional behavior by physicians. ⋯ There was important overlap in the attributes of professionalism generated and prioritized by resident physicians and patient families, although only residents identified ways that health care providers should interact with each other. This novel approach to identifying professionalism attributes provides opportunities for curriculum improvement.
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The goals were to assess the use of the skeletal survey (SS) to evaluate for physical abuse in a large consecutive sample, to identify characteristics of children most likely to have unsuspected fractures, and to determine how often SS results influenced directly the decision to make a diagnosis of abuse. ⋯ This is the largest study to date to describe the use of the SS. Almost 11% of SS results were positive. The SS results influenced directly the decision to make a diagnosis of abuse for 50% of children with positive SS results. These data, combined with the high morbidity rates for missed abuse and the large proportion of children with healing fractures detected through SS, suggest that broader use of SS, particularly for high-risk populations, may be warranted.
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Higher maternal intake of vitamin D during pregnancy is associated with a lower risk of wheezing in offspring. The relationship between cord-blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) and childhood wheezing is unknown. We hypothesized that cord-blood levels would be inversely associated with risk of respiratory infection, wheezing, and asthma. ⋯ Cord-blood levels of 25(OH)D had inverse associations with risk of respiratory infection and childhood wheezing but no association with incident asthma.
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Case Reports
Occult pulmonary hemorrhage as a rare presentation of propylthiouracil-induced vasculitis.
Propylthiouracil, a drug commonly used to treat hyperthyroidism, is known to cause antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis as a rare complication. The wide clinical spectrum of propylthiouracil-induced vasculitis ranges from mild forms with rash and/or arthralgia to severe forms with renal or pulmonary involvement, which can be critical and life-threatening if left unrecognized and untreated. Given its rarity and exceedingly variable clinical presentations, diagnosis may be challenging, and delayed diagnosis is not uncommon without a high index of suspicion, as illustrated by this report of a 17-year-old girl with Graves' disease who developed occult pulmonary hemorrhage as an overlooked rare presentation of ANCA-associated vasculitis after administration of propylthiouracil. ⋯ Serologic test results were positive for perinuclear ANCA, cytoplasmic ANCA, myeloperoxidase-ANCA, proteinase 3-ANCA, and cryoglobulins but negative for antinuclear antibody, anti-double-stranded DNA, rheumatoid factor, and anti-hepatitis C virus antibody. The symptoms resolved after discontinuation of propylthiouracil and a few months of corticosteroids and azathioprine. This report highlights the necessity for physicians to keep alert for the protean manifestations of propylthiouracil-induced vasculitis.
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Despite its high prevalence, pain often is poorly managed in the emergency department. We used improvement science and quality-improvement methods to reduce delays associated with opioid delivery for children presenting to the emergency department with clinically apparent extremity fractures. ⋯ By applying quality-improvement and process improvement methodology, we identified key drivers for the rapid delivery of systemic opioids to patients with clinically apparent extremity fractures and significantly improved the timeliness of analgesic delivery for this subgroup of patients.