Humoral and cell-mediated immune responses to monovalent 2009 influenza A/H1N1 and seasonal trivalent influenza vaccines in high-risk children.

Objective: Humoral and cell-mediated immune responses to monovalent 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1/2009) and seasonal trivalent influenza (TIV) vaccines were evaluated in healthy children and children with asthma, sickle cell disease (SCD), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and solid organ transplantation (SOT).

Study Design: Blood was collected from 112 subjects at the time of H1N1/2009 vaccination and 46 ± 15 days later for hemagglutination inhibition titers and γ-interferon ELISPOT responses to H1N1/2009 vaccine and TIV; unvaccinated children also received TIV at enrollment.

Results: A significant increase in the percentage of subjects with seroprotective hemagglutination inhibition titers to both vaccines was observed in all high-risk groups.

Dynamics of cell-mediated immune responses to cytomegalovirus in pediatric transplantation recipients.

CMI responses, combined with quantification of CMV DNA (DNAemia), may identify transplantation recipients at risk for invasive disease. PBMC were collected in pediatric transplantation candidates at one, three, and six months post-transplant in 10 subjects (six renal, three cardiac, one stem cell) and at single time points in eight HC and 14 children greater than one yr post-transplant (LTTx). Cells were stimulated with anti-CD3mAb or CMV pp65 peptide pools and responses assessed by IFNG enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot assay and cytokine secretion.

Diagnosis and management of community-associated MRSA infections in children.

The history of antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus spans more than half a century. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) has emerged as an almost ubiquitous pathogen in both the community and hospital settings.

Staphylococcus aureus as a risk factor for bloodstream infection in children with postoperative mediastinitis.

Bloodstream infection (BSI) complicates postoperative mediastinitis in >50% of cases. In this retrospective cohort study from 1995-2003, postoperative mediastinitis caused by Staphylococcus aureus was an independent risk factor for the development of BSI (adjusted odds ratio, 6.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.

Postoperative mediastinitis in children: epidemiology, microbiology and risk factors for Gram-negative pathogens.

Background: Mediastinitis, although an infrequent complication of median sternotomy, represents a significant source of morbidity and mortality.

Objective: To determine the incidence and describe the epidemiology and microbiology of mediastinitis in children after cardiac surgery and to identify risk factors for the development of Gram-negative mediastinitis.

Study Design: This was a retrospective case-control study nested within the cohort of children, birth to 18 years of age, undergoing median sternotomy between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2003.