Addressing risk management difficulties in children with food allergies

Risk is a concept inherent in every medical procedure. It can be defined as the probability of an adverse event in a defined population over a specified period of time. In the frame of food allergy management, it might be related to a diagnostic procedure, a treatment, or the consumption of foods. The risk of an adverse event can also be augmented by individual factors. This rostrum article discusses various aspects faced by children with food allergies in the light of risk, and their practical implications. Identifying personal risks for severe reaction, such as unstable asthma, and correcting them whenever possible also contribute to a reduction of the risk inherent to food allergy. Among the facets discussed, oral food challenges (OFC) are the most common diagnostic procedures implying an inherent risk. The risk of OFCs can be minimized by correct indication and timing of the test, a safe setting, as well as by ensuring that the patient is otherwise well without potential stressor potentially increasing the risk of a more severe reaction. Oral immunotherapy (OIT) has been studied as a potential treatment for increasing the threshold dose for reaction, and thus reducing the risk of accidental reaction. Nevertheless, the procedure is not devoid of risk as the patients may and do often react during the course of the procedure. Ingestion of trace amounts in processed foods, mainly in community settings such as restaurants, schools, or day care, represents a potential risk of reactions, although for a minority of patients. Precautionary allergen labeling (PAL) is a widespread strategy to reduce the potential risk of reactions due to traces. However, PAL is currently inefficient due to inconsistent labeling, also not indicating a clear maximum amount possibly present in the manufactured food. Finally, cost-effectiveness needs to be considered in risk management, as many risk reduction procedures are clearly not cost-effective.     

Developing a Brief Neuropsychological Battery for Early Diagnosis of Cognitive Impairment

ObjectivesEarly diagnosis of cognitive impairment is increasingly emphasized in the literature to facilitate timely preventive interventions. Although bedside cognitive tests such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) are widely used for such early diagnostic purposes, they may not have comparable performance to a full neuropsychological battery (FNB) in diagnosing early cognitive impairment. This study investigated whether a small subset of neuropsychological tests can be added on to MoCA to match its performance to that of the FNB in discriminating mild cognitive impairment and dementia (MCI/dementia) from normal cognition.DesignCross-sectional diagnostic study.SettingAlzheimer's Disease Centers across the United States.ParticipantsOlder participants (≥50 years) who completed MoCA and the FNB (N = 9187).MeasuresThe study sample was split into two: the derivation sample (n = 1837) was used to develop a brief neuropsychological battery that best discriminated MCI/dementia (using the best-subset approach with 10-fold cross-validation); while the validation sample (n = 7350) verified its actual performance in discriminating MCI/dementia.ResultsA 3-item neuropsychological battery was identified, comprising MoCA, Benson Complex Figure Recall, and Craft Story 21 Delayed Recall. It had excellent performance in discriminating MCI/dementia from normal cognition (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUROC] 90.0%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 89.2%-90.7%), which was comparable to that of the FNB (AUROC 88.4%, 95% CI 87.6%-89.2%). By contrast, MoCA alone had significantly worse AUROC (86.9%, 95% CI 86.0%-87.7%) than that of the FNB.Conclusions/ImplicationsUsing rigorous methods, this study developed a brief neuropsychological battery that maintained the brevity of a bedside cognitive test, while rivaling the diagnostic performance of an FNB in early cognitive impairment. This brief battery offers a viable alternative when the FNB is needed but cannot be feasibly administered in nonspecialty clinics. It can have a wider health systems effect of improving patients’ access to accurate diagnosis in early cognitive impairment and facilitating timely interventions to delay the progression of cognitive impairment.     

Anton’s syndrome due to a giant anterior fossa meningioma. The problem of routine use of advanced diagnostic imaging in psychiatric care

Summary We present a case of blindness and Anton’s syndrome in a psychiatric patient with late diagnosis of a giant frontal meningioma. The criteria for advanced diagnostic imaging in the psychiatric population are discussed. We conclude that MR or CT scan is indicated in psychiatric in-patients who fail to improve with standard psychiatric treatment. This strategy should be submitted to a cost-benefit analysis.     

WHAT KIND OF BENEFIT DO WE EXPECT FOR PERORAL PANCREATOSCOPY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF INTRADUCTAL PAPILLARY MUCINOUS TUMOR OF THE PANCREAS?

Intraductal papillary mucinous tumor (IPMT) of the pancreas is characterized by slow growth and a relatively favorable prognosis, however, invasive cancer originating in an IPMT is associated with a poor prognosis. Although various parameters in imaging modalities have been advocated to differentiate between benign IPMN and malignant ones, it is not easy to obtain definite diagnosis based on these parameters. Peroral pancreatoscopy (POPS) allows a clear and direct visualization of the pancreatic duct, providing useful information regarding tumor nature in IPMT. The authors have studied the usefulness of POPS in the diagnosis of IPMT. Nevertheless, its usefulness is not necessarily widely accepted and the significance of POPS is still controversial. In this review, the authors intended to address the diagnostic value of POPS and to clarify its role in the diagnosis of IPMT. The authors think treatment of IPMT can be improved by introducing POPS because the determination of surgical procedure as well as the area of resection based on the preoperative diagnosis of the involvement of the main pancreatic duct and branch duct is inevitable.     

新型隐球菌脑膜炎的诊断探讨及文献复习

目的:探讨新型隐球菌脑膜炎(CNM)的临床特点及诊断方法。方法:对18例CNM患者的临床资料进行回顾性分析并文献复习。结果:18例患者均经病原学确诊。大部分CNM患者为亚急性起病,临床表现无特异性,误诊率高,首诊误诊率为72％,其中误诊为结核性脑膜炎的占69％。结论:脑脊液中找到新型隐球菌是诊断该病的重要依据,多种快速检测手段结合可提高早期诊断率。     

CT对肾结核的诊断意义探讨

目的探讨肾结核的CT表现，分析CT检查在肾结核诊断中的意义。方法对42例肾结核患者进行CT检查及增强扫描并结合其他临床资料作综合分析。结果CT检查肾内有低密度病灶，空洞形成，多发空洞有特征性改变。结论肾结核的CT表现有一定的特征性，CT检查优于其他方法，在肾结核的诊断中有重要意义。     

胆囊结石伴胆囊癌的诊治分析

目的探讨胆囊癌与胆囊结石的关系及胆囊结石伴胆囊癌的诊断和治疗特点。方法对1993年1月至2004年12月间收治的27例胆囊癌合并胆囊结石患者进行回顾性临床分析。结果27例胆囊癌合并胆囊结石患者,男10例,女17例,男女之比为1:1.7。平均年龄68.5岁,其中60岁以上22例。临床症状最常见为腹痛(85.2%)。既往有明确胆结石病史患者15例,入院后发现胆结石的有12例。行B超检查的23例,诊断胆囊癌的有12例(52.2%)。CT结合增强扫描检查12例,诊断胆囊癌的有8例(66.7%)。行肿瘤根治切除者8例,根治率29.6%。随访13例,随访期为3个月~7年,获随访者的平均存活时间为12个月。结论胆囊结石是胆囊癌的发病因素之一,胆囊癌早期诊断困难,晚期治疗效果差,伴胆囊结石的胆囊癌关键是要引起重视,不能满足胆囊结石的诊断而遗漏胆囊癌。对胆囊结石患者要密切随访,高危患者要尽早手术。     

Sensitivity and specificity of a self-administered questionnaire for familial screening of adult-onset dystonia.

We developed a self-administered questionnaire for screening the most common adult-onset dystonias. It was tested in 90 first-degree relatives of 22 adult-onset dystonia patients, yielding 79% sensitivity and 94% specificity. Simulation of a case-finding procedure based on serial application of the questionnaire and clinical examination of both subjects screening positive and subjects screening negative who had < 8 years of schooling increased sensitivity to 95% and specificity to 100%. This questionnaire may be an important screening resource for familial aggregation studies to be used in the context of a complex case-finding procedure.