Sickle cell-related bone marrow complications: the utility of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging.

In sickle cell disease diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) are helpful, costeffective, and promising techniques for differentiating bone marrow involvements. So we suggest to consider a MR diffusion panoramic study (whole-body diffusion MR) when multiple follow-up imaging is required in young patients who are at high risk for chronic radiation damage, so that alternatives to PET study may be taken into consideration.

Comparison of the effect of antibiotic treatment on the possibility of diagnosing invasive pneumococcal disease by culture or molecular methods: a prospective, observational study of children and adolescents with proven pneumococcal infection.

Background: Detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae in culture specimens in invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) may be hampered by antibiotic treatment administered before hospital admission. Realtime polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays do not require viable bacteria and are therefore less influenced by antimicrobial therapy. It is not known how long results of culture or molecular tests remain positive after antibiotic therapy is begun.

Myositis ossificans circumscripta: a paediatric case and review of the literature.

Myositis ossificans circumscripta (MOC), characterised by non-neoplastic heterotopic bone formation in soft tissue and skeletal muscle, is rare in children. At onset, it is difficult to distinguish MOC from a musculoskeletal infection or neoplasm, particularly in absence of trauma, and a biopsy is frequently required. We describe an 11-year-old boy with MOC in his thigh.

Henoch Schonlein purpura in childhood: epidemiological and clinical analysis of 150 cases over a 5-year period and review of literature.

Objective: To examine epidemiological, clinical, and outcome in Italian children affected with Henoch Schönlein purpura (HSP).

Methods: Retrospective study of children discharged with a diagnosis of HSP from the Meyer Children's Hospital, between 1998 and 2002. Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory data, treatment, and outcome were collected by reviewing medical charts.