Fussy, febrile, and 5 months old: Can you take him at face value?
February 1st 2004Q Yesterday, a 5-month-old Latino boy was brought to the emergency department of the general hospital in Denver where you work because his mother was concerned about his three-day history of subjective fever and fussiness, including refusal to sleep. You were out, but today you're handed his chart, and a note catches your eye describing three episodes of nonbloody, nonbilious vomiting and two loose stools the day of presentation.
Speaking about illness, what's in a name?
February 1st 2004It won't come as a great surprise to pediatricians that respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) isn't the only viral cause of winter respiratory tract infection in infants. There have always been patients with upper airway congestion, wheezing, and even apparent viral pneumonia who appear in the midst of, or on the edges of, RSV season, but whose rapid antigen test doesn't support a diagnosis of RSV.
Baffling jaundice at 5 weeks: Are you being watched, Doctor?
January 1st 2004The 5-week-old girl just admitted to your pediatric service is here for evaluation of lethargy, jaundice, and poor weight gain after hardly a month at home. Admission came at the request of the gastroenterologist to whom she had been referred by her primary care pediatrician because of rising direct hyperbilirubinemia.