[Sickle cell disease and cerebrovascular stroke: a preventable event].

Introduction: About 75% of the children presenting with cerebrovascular stroke have an identified cause. For black children, the most common underlying condition is sickle cell disease. This case report describes a preventable natural history, with an unusual presenting feature.

Health-related quality of life of pediatric intensive care survivors.

Objective: To assess the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of children surviving to pediatric intensive care discharge.

Methods: A prospective evaluation of HRQoL at admission and 6 months later was carried out with children aged 6 years or more, admitted to three tertiary pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) from May 2002 to June 2004. HRQoL was measured with the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3) questionnaire, administered to a child's proxy.

Successful Handling of Disseminated BCG Disease in a Child with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency.

In high-burden countries, Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is administered in newborn to prevent severe Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Because life-threatening disseminated BCG disease may occur in children with primary immunodeficiency, vaccination strategy against tuberculosis should be redefined in non-high-burden countries. We report the case of a patient with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) who developed disseminated BCG disease, highlighting the specific strategies adopted.

Nonlethal, attenuated, transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease in an immunocompromised child: case report and review of the literature.

Background: Transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease (TA-GVHD) is a rare complication of transfusion of nonirradiated blood components. It usually affects children in high-risk groups, including those who have primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs). It usually presents with skin, hepatic, digestive, and hematologic involvement and is normally fatal.

[Hereditary pancreatitis in a child].

Hereditary pancreatitis is defined as a family history of two or more relatives with pancreatitis and clinical, biochemical, or radiologic evidence of pancreatitis. This is the fourth family described with hereditary pancreatitis related to mutation c.364C>T (p.

[Paediatric Burkitt lymphoma presenting as acute pancreatitis].

Pancreatitis in children and adolescents is uncommon and its causes are more varied in this age group than in adults. A tumoral aetiology is particularly rare. We present the case of a 13-year-old boy who was admitted to our Intensive Care Unit with the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis, bilateral pleural effusion and ascites.

[Lúpus erythematosus].

Systemic Lúpus Erythematosus (SLE) is an auto-imune disorder, with multiple organ involvement, characterized by vascular and connective tissue inflammation, as well as antinuclear antibodies (ANA). We report a case of a black teenager with a past of arthritis of knees, fever and astenia during the year previous to this admission. She was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for bilateral Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia complicated by pleural effusion.

Methadone intoxication in a child: toxic encephalopathy?

Methadone is used in the treatment of opioid addiction. Acute intoxication can lead to severe consequences and can even be lethal. In several case reports and small series, a presumably toxic leukoencephalopathy is described resulting from inhalation of heroin.

Lupus myelopathy in a child.

A 5-year-old female developed, after a 7-month period of fever, anorexia, weight loss, and a transitory cutaneous erythematous eruption, a severe acute transverse myelopathy, with a partial recovery of motor and sensory function. She had positive antinuclear and antidouble-stranded DNA antibodies but no antiphospholipid antibodies. Six months later she had massive proteinuria and restarted treatment with steroids and cyclophosphamide.