Chronic sinusitis in children

Clinical practice guidelines for the management of acute sinusitis in children have been published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Of note is that in this document, a brief discussion of chronic disease concluded that the pathogenesis and management are essentially unknown. Although there are insufficient data in the literature to develop evidence-based clinical guidelines, a careful review of the literature and clinical experience of experts who manage pediatric chronic sinusitis is presented in an effort to develop specific recommendations and to offer practical treatment options. Factors associated with chronic sinusitis should be addressed individually and include recurrent viral upper respiratory infections, allergic and nonallergic rhinitis, ciliary dyskinesia, cystic fibrosis, immunodeficiency, and anatomic abnormalities. Bacteriology includes the 3 pathogens associated with acute disease i.e., Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis but with chronic sinusitis also includes Staphylococcus aureus, anaerobic bacteria, and fungi. Medical interventions discussed include endoscopic sinus surgery, saline nasal irrigation, intranasal decongestant therapy, intranasal steroids, and oral antibiotics. Clinical ranking without regard to side effects and cost suggests that endoscopic sinus surgery and antral irrigation have the highest probability of substantial symptom improvement. Other issues discussed include identification and management of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), allergy, and immune deficiency.     

Chronic diseases of lung parenchyma in children: the role of imaging

Chronic diseases of the lung parenchyma (CDoLP) in children encompass a vast number of distinct clinico-pathological conditions. The prevalence of CDoLP has continued to increase in the last 10–15 years and the paediatric radiologist will therefore have to become more familiar with the imaging appearances of CDoLP. This review highlights some of the key imaging appearances of CDoLP, focussing mainly on airways disease. We also explore issues around technique optimisation and dose minimisation that remain of paramount importance in children.     

Torticollis in children: diagnostic approach]

Torticollis is an abnormal head posture. Clinical presentation includes ipsilateral tilt and controlateral rotation, and translation. Aetiologies are various including muscular entities, traumatic, inflammatory, infectious, tumour and non-muscular entities ocular, ORL or digestive. Majorities are minor and generally, a complete physical examination is sufficient to eliminate serious entities. Concretely, it is important to separate acute and chronic form. Traumatic torticollis justifies a systematic standard radiograph and then 15 days after dynamic evaluation. Septic torticollis evokes otolaryngological infection or spondylodiscitis. Chronic torticollis is congenital, postural or malformative. In case of recurrent form or torticollis with neurological abnormalities, TDM or RMI are necessary to eliminate tumoral diseases.     

Lameness in children: diagnostic process]

A complete examination including the lower limb, the spine as well as a neurological exam must be done for every limp in children to eliminate an infectious process in particular. The complementary exams are guided by this clinical examination but standard assessment necessitate at least plain X-rays with an AP view of the pelvis and a lateral view of the hips, a blood count with the ESR and the CRP to eliminate rapidly a tumoral or an infectious process which requires quickly an appropriate treatment. In particular cases, this work-up must be repeated in association with other complementary exams to find the etiologic diagnosis. Bone pains in children are often secondary to a true pathologic process. All these examination and work-up must be done before classified them as "growing pain".     

The current management of sinusitis in children.

The paranasal sinuses are common sites of infection in children. The diagnosis of sinusitis may be challenging because the sinus cavities are small and variably contoured, the clinical manifestations are often nonspecific, and the radiologic findings may be equivocal. Because many local and systemic factors contribute to sinusitis in children, the therapeutic regimens vary. In addition to conventional medical approaches, new surgical procedures and improved anesthetic techniques have made functional endonasal sinus surgery an excellent management tool for selected patients with chronic or recurrent disease.     

Subacute sinusitis in children

The bacteriologic characteristics of subacute maxillary sinusitis have not been delineated in the pediatric age group. Forty children between the ages of 2 and 12 years with respiratory symptoms for at least 30 but less than 120 days were evaluated. Nasal discharge and cough were the most prominent symptoms. Common radiographic findings were diffuse opacification and mucosal thickenings. Sinus aspiration was performed on 52 sinuses of 40 children. Bacterial colony counts greater than or equal to 10(4) colony-forming units per milliliter were found in 30 (58%) of 52 sinus aspirates obtained from 26 (65%) children. The bacterial species most commonly recovered were Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Branhamella catarrhalis. Twenty-five percent of the maxillary sinus isolates were beta-lactamase producing; however, many of these were recovered from patients who had recently received antimicrobial therapy. Subacute and acute maxillary sinusitis are similar in regard to causative organism, clinical presentation, and radiographic findings.     

Chronic sinusitis in the allergic child

Chronic inflammation of the paranasal sinuses, especially the maxillary sinuses, is common in children with respiratory allergy. The presence of sinusitis should be suspected in such children when they have chronic night and early morning cough or poorly controlled asthma. Treatment should be aggressive because morbidity can be high.     

Imaging of sinusitis in children

In most cases, sinusitis remains a clinical diagnosis. Imaging studies can be useful in diagnosing patients with atypical presentations, but plain radiographs lack sensitivity and specificity, and coronal sinus CT lacks specificity. Coronal sinus CT is generally used when complications of sinusitis are suspected or when sinus surgery is considered.     

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??Abstract??Objective??The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of diffusion-weighted imaging ??DWI?? in the diagnosis of viral encephalitis and its relationship with the stage of the illness. Methods??We performed conventional magnetic resonance imaging ??MRI?? including T1WI?? T2WI sequences and DWI in 56 patients with viral encephalitis diagnosed on the basis of laboratory??clinical and radiologic findings??in which 29 patients were abnormal. Thirteen patients have received MRI two times. So ??there were 42 case-times of abnormal MRI.Based on the qualitative and quantitative comparison of the conventional MRI and DWI?? the patients were divided into three groups. Apparent diffusion coefficient ??ADC?? values of the involved and contralateral normal brain tissues were computed and compared for each group. Results ??In group ?? ??n = 23?? DWI was superior to conventional MRI in detecting the encephalitic involved sites and in depicting the borders of the encephalitic lesions. In group ?? ??n = 11?? DWI was similar to conventional MRI. In group ?? ??n = 8?? conventional MRI was superior to DWI. Mean ADC values of affected versus contralateral normal brain tissues were 0.45±0.19×10-3 mm2/s VS 0.93±0.06×10-3 mm2/s in group ??0.87±0.31×103 mm2/s VS 0.97±0.06×10-3 mm2/s in group ?? and 1.66±0.60×10-3 mm2/s VS 1.08±0.24×10-3 mm2/s in group ??. Patients in group ?? had significantly lower ADC values than those in group ?? while patients in group ?? had the highest ADC values ??P < 0.05??. The ADC values were significantly lower in the affected sites than in the unaffected sites of patients in groups I and ?? but were significantly higher in the affected sites than in the unaffected sites of patients in group ?? ??P < 0.05??. There was an excellent correlation between ADC values and duration of the disease ??r = 0.874??P = 0.01??. Conclusion??DWI is superior to other conventional diagnostic MR sequences in the detection of early viral encephalitic lesions and depiction of the lesion borders and?? in combination with other sequences?? DWI may contribute to the determination of the disease phase.     

Isolated sphenoidal sinusitis in children

Acute isolated infectious sphenoiditis is an uncommon, potentially dangerous condition which is often misdiagnosed because of its nonspecific symptoms and paucity of clinical signs. We present eight children with isolated sphenoiditis who were managed in our medical centre during the last 2 years and review the literature. All the patients were adolescents or pre-adolescents and all experienced moderate to severe refractory oppressive headache. Four had a history of sinusitis or allergic rhinitis. None had fever or any other directing clinical sign. Diagnosis was made by cranial computer tomography. All were treated with antibiotics and recovered completely without infectious or neurological complications. Conclusion Acute isolated infectious sphenoiditis should be considered in adolescents and pre-adolescents who present with constant moderate to severe oppressive headache. Awareness of this entity will enable early diagnosis and initiation of antibiotic treatment which is essential to avoid complications and surgical intervention. Received: 25 May 1998 / Accepted: 17 July 1998     

Deafness screening in children by otoacoustic emissions. Current data]

Hearing impairment should be detected in early childhood. Among available screening techniques, acoustic oto-emission testing is a rapid, reliable, noninvasive method which specifically investigates peripheral hearing but does not provide data on auditory nerve centers. This functional test should be carried out within a few days of birth in infants with risk factors for hearing impairment.     

Chronic hepatitis C virus infection in children]

Peripartum transmission is today the main cause of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in children. HCV infection rarely causes a clinical illness during childhood and adolescence, except when it is associated with additional risk factors such as hepatitis B or HIV infection, chemotherapy or immunodeficiency. Present data suggest that between 20 to 50 percent of contaminated infants will become spontaneously non viremic within 15 to 20 years. Studies on treatment with interferon-alpha are limited and show a mean recovery rate of 40%.