Screening for sleep disorders in pediatric primary care: are we there yet?

Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and habitual snoring are highly prevalent childhood conditions and have been associated with a large array of negative health outcomes. Although guidelines were published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) a decade ago recommending routine screening of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in primary care settings, it remains unclear to what extent such guidelines have been implemented and resulted in effective SDB screening. The aim of this study was to determine if AAP guidelines are adhered to in pediatric primary care.

Can a novel smartphone application detect periodic limb movements?

Background: Periodic limb movements (PLMs) are repetitive, stereotypical and unconscious movements, typically of the legs, that occur in sleep and are associated with several sleep disorders. The gold standard for detecting PLMs is overnight electromyography which, although highly sensitive and specific, is time and labour consuming. The current generation of smart phones is equipped with tri-axial accelerometers that record movement.

Sporadic Pantoea agglomerans bacteremia in a near-term female: case report and review of literature.

Pantoea agglomerans is a plant pathogen and an unusual cause of human disease typically associated with thorn prick injuries or contaminated parenteral fluids. In the neonate, P. agglomerans has been reported to cause bacteremia or sepsis 17 times previously.

Ropinirole in restless legs syndrome and periodic limb movement disorder.

Restless legs syndrome and periodic limb movement disorder of sleep are now recognized as prevalent, distinct, yet overlapping disorders affecting all age groups. Although delineation of the mechanisms underlying these disorders continues to be the focus of very intense research efforts, it has become apparent that there is a prominent role for dopaminergic agents in the clinical management of these patients. Among the various dopaminergic drugs, ropinirole has undergone relatively intense and critical scrutiny, and appears to provide a safe and efficacious treatment option for patients with these two conditions.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids and cerebrospinal fluid from children on the ketogenic diet open a voltage-gated K channel: a putative mechanism of antiseizure action.

Purpose: Many children with epilepsy do not satisfactorily respond to conventional pharmacological therapy, but to the ketogenic diet, a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. This diet increases the concentrations of ketone bodies and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma. However, its anticonvulsant mechanism is not known.

Small bowel intussusception after blunt abdominal trauma in a 6-year-old boy: case report and review of 6 cases reported in the literature.

Although intussusception is a well-known cause of acute abdomen in the pediatric population, traumatic intussusception is exceedingly rare and has been reported previously only 6 times in a preadolescent child. We present a case of ileoileal intussusception in a previously healthy 6-year-old boy after blunt trauma to the abdomen and review the English language literature on the subject.