News

A primer for pediatricians on how to approach hypertension in children and adolescents.

Among adults with or without children who stated they were likely to vote on Nov. 4, 55% said a candidate's stance on child health issues would affect their vote, results from a C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health show.

This 13-year-old girl, who has just entered secondary school, has been devastated by the appearance of psoriatic plaques on her scalp. She states that her peers shun her and make rude comments about the "scabs" on her face

A 13-year-old girl presented to her primary care pediatrician for continuing evaluation of intermittent right lower quadrant and right hip pain of 7 months' duration. As part of the workup, a pediatric orthopedist had ordered an MRI scan of her pelvis. The findings were normal except for the presence of multiple ovarian follicles bilaterally (Figures 1 and 2).

As parents prepare to leave hospitals and physicians' offices with their children, clinicians explain how medications should be administered. Studies have shown that, despite these explanations, medication errors are common in children treated at home. These errors include inaccurate dosing and failure to complete prescribed courses.1

A city's favorite son might have a street named after him. It is common for Broadway theaters to be named for famous actors and actresses. An equivalent distinction for a physician is to have a condition named after him or her. Alexander K. C. Leung, MD, long-time member of the editorial board of CONSULTANT FOR PEDIATRICIANS, recently joined the ranks of those physicians who have been so distinguished. Dr Leung is clinical associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Calgary and pediatric consultant at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary.

I thoroughly enjoyed the articles "Anti-Vaccine Media: Its Impact-and Strategies to Combat It" by Linda Nield, MD, and "Vaccinations: Immunizations Do Not Cause Autism Spectrum Disorder . . . They Prevent Disease" by Golder Wilson, MD, PhD, and Miranda Ramirez, MD (both of which appeared in the Special Issue on Vaccines that accompanied the September 2008 issue of CONSULTANT FOR PEDIATRICIANS).

The parents of this 5-month-old boy were concerned that his eyes were turned in toward the nose. The infant was otherwise healthy. Physical examination findings were normal. In particular, when a light source was projected onto the eyes, the light reflex was centered in both eyes.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved insulin glulisine (Apidra) to treat diabetes in children ages 4 and older, announced the drug's manufacturer, sanofi-aventis.

Toys in pediatric waiting rooms may expose patients to cold viruses, according to findings presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, held jointly with the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Children and adolescents who abuse alcohol or are sexually active are more likely to take methamphetamines, according to a study published in BMC Pediatrics.

Vaccinating new mothers and other family members against influenza before newborns go home may be an effective way to protect infants against the virus, according to Duke Children's Hospital researchers.

Almost one third of women participating in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program report sharing a bed with their infant, as reported in the October Journal of Pediatrics.

Young people with ADHD may be at increased risk of becoming addicted to tobacco, according to a report in the Journal of Pediatrics.

With Halloween just around the neighborhood corner, kids are undoubtedly looking forward to participating in time-honored traditions of the season: wearing costumes, ringing doorbells, and perhaps most fun of all, eating lots of candy. But Halloween has also been a time of concern for parents worried about sick stomachs and trick-or-treating safety.

The prevalence of food or digestive allergies among children increased 18% in the past decade, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

More than 2 million US children with no health insurance have at least one parent who receives insurance, as reported in the October 22 JAMA.

Tobacco smoke and lead exposure may be linked to a particularly high risk of ADHD, according to findings presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

The rate of US infant deaths decreased by 2% in 2006, but is still not lower than that of other industrialized countries, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.

In 2006, 4,144 teens ages 16 through 19 died in motor vehicle crashes, and nearly 400,000 were treated in emergency departments for related injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, statistics are not so precise regarding a little-known, yet dangerously lethal, teen phenomenon known as "car surfing."

Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs may be in their infancy, but they are inevitably coming to a pediatric practice near you, explained Keith Dveirin, MD, at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2008 National Conference and Exhibition in Boston.

Stephen G. Rice, MD, PhD, provided an overview of the major changes in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)'s new clinical report on medical conditions affecting sports participation. He also addressed controversial topics that were confronted in the update process.

Aaron Friedman, MD, reviewed maintenance and rehydration fluid therapy in the pediatric setting, as well as treatment management scenarios for common electrolyte abnormalities, at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2008 National Conference and Exhibition in Boston.

Evoking their inner Car Talk guy, David Stockwell, MD, a critical care specialist at Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC, and Andy Spooner, MD, a general pediatrician and chief medical officer at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Ohio, talked about handheld electronic devices to a group of pediatricians at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2008 National Conference and Exhibition.

All-terrain vehicles (ATV) were introduced to the public in 1972, and are now the fastest growing sports vehicle in the US. M. Denise Dowd, MD, MPH of the University of Missouri-Kansas City said to attendants of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2008 National Conference and Exhibition that the number purchased rose from 5 million in 1972 to 50 million in 2006.

Lab technicians can run a test for lead, and for ammonia, but not for pesticides. They’re concocted from a mix of chemicals in different quantities, with different properties and tolerance levels. If only the difficulty of tracking them down in the bloodstream was their only downside.

Geneticist Francis Collins, MD, PhD, wearing a double helix tie, told a story of a man who drops his keys in a dark parking lot, but only looks under one floodlight. It’s not where he dropped his keys, but it’s the only place he can see.

The stem cell’s pluripotency is an almost mythical mutability, able to turn into a nerve cell, a bone marrow cell, a muscle cell, a hepatic cell–anything. Turning that myth into a reality is the work of George Q. Daley, of the Harvard School of Medicine.