Clinical judgement by primary care physicians for the diagnosis of all-cause dementia or cognitive impairment in symptomatic people.

Background: In primary care, general practitioners (GPs) unavoidably reach a clinical judgement about a patient as part of their encounter with patients, and so clinical judgement can be an important part of the diagnostic evaluation. Typically clinical decision making about what to do next for a patient incorporates clinical judgement about the diagnosis with severity of symptoms and patient factors, such as their ideas and expectations for treatment. When evaluating patients for dementia, many GPs report using their own judgement to evaluate cognition, using information that is immediately available at the point of care, to decide whether someone has or does not have dementia, rather than more formal tests.

The range of peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer and optic disc parameters, in children aged up to but not including 18 years of age who were born prematurely: protocol for a systematic review.

Background: The parameters of the optic disc and peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer (pRNFL) in premature children may vary with disease processes that contribute to visual impairment and blindness and so could be useful as an objective measure in at-risk children.

Methods: A systematic review of current literature on the range of pRNFL and optic disc parameters in children aged less than 18 years, who were born before 37 weeks gestation, will be performed. The bibliographic databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, Scopus and Web of Science will be systematically searched.

The range of peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer and optic disc parameters in children aged up to but not including 18 years of age, as measured by optical coherence tomography: protocol for a systematic review.

Background: The parameters of the optic disc and peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer (pRNFL) in children may vary with disease processes that contribute to visual impairment and blindness and so could be useful as an objective measure in at-risk children. There is no standardised reference for the normal parameters of the optic disc and pRNFL in children; however, there are a large number of small individual studies that have been undertaken to look at these measures.

Methods: A systematic review of current literature on the range of pRNFL and optic disc parameters in children aged less than 18 years will be performed.

Ophthalmic abnormalities and reading impairment.

Objectives: To explore associations between specific learning disorder with impairment in reading (dyslexia) and ophthalmic abnormalities in children aged 7 to 9 years.

Methods: Cross-sectional analysis was performed on cohort study data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Reading impairment was defined according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition criteria.

Why can't my child see 3D television?

A child encountering difficulty in watching three-dimensional (3D) stereoscopic displays could have an underlying ocular disorder. It is therefore valuable to understand the differential diagnoses and so conduct an appropriate clinical assessment to address concerns about poor 3D vision.

Ophthalmic abnormalities in children with developmental coordination disorder.

Aim: To explore associations between developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and ophthalmic abnormalities in children aged 7 to 8 years.

Method: Cross-sectional analysis of data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a UK birth cohort, was performed. DCD was defined according to DSM-IV criteria.

Do GPs respond to postal questionnaire surveys? A comprehensive review of primary care literature.

Background: There is a general consensus that postal surveys of physicians have low response rates. Recent systematic reviews have provided an improved evidence base to help researchers maximize response rates to self-completion questionnaires but to date, there is no comprehensive analysis of whether response rates have improved.

Objective: To determine a contemporary estimate for the mean response rate to surveys of GPs published in primary care journals over the past decade.

Ophthalmic abnormalities in children with Down syndrome.

A comprehensive review of the available literature was performed to determine the common ophthalmic disorders in children aged 0 to 16 years with Down syndrome. The UK National Library for Health interface was used to search seven electronic databases, including MEDLINE and EMBASE. Terms related to Down syndrome, ophthalmology, and pediatrics were combined in the search strategy, which yielded 230 articles.