Metabolic abnormalities in human immunodeficiency virus-infected children: two-year follow-up.

Background: HIV-associated lipodystrophy (LD) manifests with fat maldistribution, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance in some HIV-infected children on antiretroviral therapy.

Aim: To assess whether lipid abnormalities in patients with HIV are stable over time.

Patients: The perinatally HIV-infected cohort at a medium-sized urban US teaching hospital.

Do pediatricians manage influenza differently than internists?

Background: Little is known about how pediatricians or internists manage influenza symptoms. Recent guidelines on antiviral prescribing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) make almost no distinction between adults and children. Our objective was to describe how pediatricians in two large academic medical institutions manage influenza and compare them to internists.

HIV--associated lipodystrophy in children.

Lipodystrophy (LD) with varying degrees of lipohypertrophy, lipoatrophy, hyperlipidemia, and insulin resistance is one of the complications of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and occurs in one to 33 % of HAART-treated, HIV infected children. We summarize the data on the role of leptin, adiponectin, the growth hormone axis, glucocorticoids, sterol response element binding protein 1c (SREBP-1c), the tumor necrosis factor alpha axis (TNF-alpha), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin- 18 (IL-18), interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha), tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1) in the pathophysiology of LD. Adiponectin levels are generally decreased in LD, whereas leptin levels are increased.

Effects of local variation, specialty, and beliefs on antiviral prescribing for influenza.

In 2004, we conducted a survey of physician knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding influenza diagnosis and treatment at Baystate Medical Center in Massachusetts and Scott & White Hospital and Clinic in Texas. Of the 579 physicians we contacted, 336 completed the survey. Sixty-one percent of the respondents prescribed antivirals, and 62% used rapid testing.

Evidence of human immunodeficiency virus-associated lipodystrophy syndrome in children treated with protease inhibitors.

We conducted a prospective evaluation for evidence of the HIV-associated lipodystrophy syndrome of 26 children infected with HIV-1. Six children had evidence of body fat redistribution. Nine children showed laboratory evidence of insulin resistance.