Patient engagement with an automated postdischarge text messaging program for improving care transitions.

Automated text messaging is a promising approach to monitor patients after hospital discharge and avert readmissions; however, it is not known to what extent patients would engage with this type of program and whether engagement may vary based on patients' characteristics. Using data from a 30-day postdischarge texting program at a large university hospital, we examined engagement over time (operationalized as response rate to text messages) and patient characteristics associated with engagement. Of the 1324 patients in the study sample, 838 (63%) stayed in the program for the full duration.

Wide Variability in the Sensitivity and Specificity of Rotavirus Immunoassay Diagnostic Kits in Practice.

Introduction: Most hospitals rely on rapid antigen-detection kits for the diagnosis of rotavirus infection. Several small studies reviewed the sensitivity and specificity of some of these kits. These studies showed discrepancy in results obtained for sensitivity and specificity that varied according to the type of kit used, area of study, and type of test used as standard for diagnosis of rotavirus infection.

Rapid and sustained recovery of renal function with transient placement of an intrauretral nephrostomy catheter in an infant with ureteropelvic junction obstruction and acute renal failure.

Ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) is a common, congenital urinary malformation in the pediatric age group. In most cases the diagnosis is made antenataly and resolves spontaneously. Postnatal diagnosis is made when symptoms of urinary tract infection or abdominal pain occur.

[Atrioventricular septal defect characteristics in infants with and without Down's syndrome: a Lebanese study].

Objectives: Analyze the demographic and clinical characteristics of complete atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD), its association with Down's syndrome, with other cardiac and extra-cardiac anomalies, and finally the impact of consanguineous marriages on the incidence of AVSD.

Patients & Methods: The sample consisted of 2195 consecutive patients with congenital heart defect, entered in the National Register of Paediatric and Congenital Heart Disease, Lebanese Society of Cardiology, Beirut, between Jan 1999 and Dec 2007. 120 patients with AVSD were analyzed.

Prenatal and neonatal Group B Streptococcus screening and serotyping in Lebanon: incidence and implications.

The study aimed at determining the prevalence, risk factors, perinatal transmission, and serotypes of Group B Streptococcus (GBS) among pregnant women and their newborns in Beirut, Lebanon. This was a cross-sectional study of all pregnant women admitted from February to September 2006 to three major hospitals. Overall, 137 of 775 (17.

[Congenital heart disease associated with gastrointestinal malformations].

Objectives: To explore the association of congenital heart disease and malformations of the gastrointestinal tract/abdominal wall.

Patients And Methods: Over seven years, 105 neonates presenting with congenital gastrointestinal/abdominal wall anomalies were explored for associated congenital heart disease. Sex, consanguinity, type of cardiac anomaly, type of gastrointestinal/abdominal wall anomaly, and chromosomal anomalies were all analyzed in order to find predisposing factors for this association.

Incidence and correlates of cesarean section in a capital city of a middle-income country.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and correlates of cesarean deliveries (CS) in Beirut.

Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted on 18,837 consecutive infants born at nine hospitals from the National Collaborative Perinatal Neonatal Network (NCPNN). Stepwise Logistic Regression was performed to determine CS correlates.