Two children with lethargy and intussusception

The cases of two patients with lethargy as the predominant symptom of intussusception are described. The first patient was admitted to the pediatric ICU with unexplained lethargy. The diagnosis of intussusception was made after he developed right lower quadrant abdominal tenderness and heme-positive stool. The second patient was diagnosed after presenting to the emergency department with intermittent lethargy, right lower quadrant abdominal tenderness, and heme-positive stool. The presence of gastrointestinal symptoms or signs in association with lethargy should alert the physician to the possibility of an intussusception.     

New and developing anesthesia drugs

Introduction: In recent years, new anesthetic drugs with potentially better pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties are under development with good progress. Some of the most promising drugs are reviewed in this article.

Areas covered: A literature review was performed using Ovid and Medline as the search engine. Articles published from January 2000 to December 2016 were included for review. Efforts have been made to eliminate duplicated studies.

Expert opinion: This is an up-to-date review on new and developing anesthesia drugs. It will give readers information on the pharmacology and clinical significance of these new drugs.     

Pulse oximetry screening to detect critical congenital heart diseases in asymptomatic neonates

BackgroundCritical congenital heart diseases (CCHDs), 10% to 25% of all CHD, are duct-dependent defects that are life threatening without intervention in the neonatal period or infancy. One third of neonates with CCHDs are discharged home undetected and have a poorer outcome. Pulse oximetry screening before discharge is increasingly being used to diagnose CCHDs in developed countries.MethodsThis prospective observational study conducted at a tertiary care hospital from September 2016 to March 2019 screened all asymptomatic intramural neonates after 24 hours of life using a Masimo pulse oximeter with signal extraction technology using the standard American Academy of Pediatrics algorithm. A positive screen was followed by a confirmatory echocardiography (gold standard) and a negative screen by clinical examination at 6, 10 and 14 weeks and identification of readmissions during the study period.ResultsA total of 1855 neonates (82.99% of the eligible 2235 neonates) underwent screening at a mean (SD) age at screening of 32.4 (6.8) hours and took a mean (SD) time of 3.5 (1.2) minutes. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of pulse oximetry screening for detection of CCHDs in asymptomatic neonates was 75% (95% CI: 28.91% to 96.59%), 99.29% (95% CI: 98.79% to 99.60%), 18.75% (95% CI: 5.80% to 43.80%) and 99.94% (95% CI: 99.66 to 99.99%), respectively.ConclusionPulse oximetry screening of asymptomatic neonates between 24 and 48 hours of life improved the detection of CCHDs with high specificity and negative predictive value, moderate sensitivity and a reasonably low false positivity rate.     

Serum Zinc Levels in Cutaneous Disorders

Serum zinc levels were studied in 75 patients of different cutaneous disorders and 24 healthy controls. It was found to be significantly lower in acne vulgaris (71.5 ± 21.5µgm/100ml), leprosy(85.9 ± 26.9µgm/100ml) and psoriasis (93.3 ± 25.9µgm/100ml) as compared to healthy controls (105.3 ± 30.1µgm/100ml). No significant correlation was found in other cutaneous disorders studied i.e. vitiligo and aphthous ulcers where serum zinc levels were found to be 97.3 ± 26.6 µgm/100ml and 105.2 ± 23.5 µgm/100ml respectively.Key Words: Acne vulgaris, Aphthous ulcers, Leprosy, Psoriasis, Vitiligo, Zinc     

Willingness to accept H1N1 pandemic influenza vaccine: A cross-sectional study of Hong Kong community nurses

Background  

The 2009 pandemic of influenza A (H1N1) infection has alerted many governments to make preparedness plan to control the spread of influenza A (H1N1) infection. Vaccination for influenza is one of the most important primary preventative measures to reduce the disease burden. Our study aims to assess the willingness of nurses who work for the community nursing service (CNS) in Hong Kong on their acceptance of influenza A (H1N1) influenza vaccination.     

Peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumor of the chest wall in childhood: clinico-pathological significance, management and literature review

Peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumor of the chest wall is a rare malignant tumor usually occurring in children. The tumor shares a similar histology, immunohistology and cytogenetics to Ewing's sarcoma. The location of the tumor in the chest wall poses a major challenge with respect to the diagnostic workup and treatment which involves multidisciplinary management. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is given initially and is followed by complete surgical resectioning of the mass followed by repeat chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy. We report a case of peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumor of the chest wall in a 5-year-old boy and review the literature regarding its diagnosis and management.     

Prevalent and Emerging Therapies for Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis and fractures associated with it constitute a real and serious socio-medical problem, which only recently has come to the forefront of social consciousness. With increasing number of exservicemen and their dependents, osteoporosis management has become very important in our setup. Currently available pharmacological therapies for prevention of fragility fractures are limited in scope, efficacy and acceptability to patients. Oral bisphosphonates are the standard treatment for osteoporosis which are associated with significant gastrointestinal side effects and thus poor patient compliance. Newer regimens, including intravenous (IV) formulations of bisphosphonates, have successfully come in vogue with greater patient compliance and equal or better benefits. The real need in osteoporosis treatment is for additional anabolic drugs. The only currently approved anabolic agent for treating osteoporosis is teriparatide (recombinant human parathyroid hormone 1–34), which stimulates new bone formation. Considerable efforts are being made to develop new, more effective treatment for osteoporosis. These novel drugs under trial include those primarily inhibiting osteoclastic bone resorption (like bisphosphonates) such as inhibitors of receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B ligand (RANKL) signalling, cathepsin K inhibitors, c-Src kinase inhibitors, integrin inhibitors, chloride channel inhibitors and the drugs with osteo-anabolic actions such as orally active parathyroid hormone (PTH) analogues, calcium sensing receptor antagonists, PTH-related peptide analogues and agents that induce osteoblast anabolism via pathways involving key, recently identified, molecular targets (wnt low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein-5 signalling; sclerostin antibodies).Key Words: Osteoporosis, Prevalent, Emerging therapies