Issues associated with dog bite injuries in children and adolescents assessed at the emergency department.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the pattern of dog bites seen at the emergency department of a university hospital. The information will be used to plan prevention and enhance management strategies.

Methods: All patients (younger than 22 years) assessed at the emergency department between January 2003 and December 2004 with a discharge diagnosis of animal bites were identified through the computerized discharge network.

Eczema exacerbation and food atopy beyond infancy: how should we advise Chinese parents about dietary history, eczema severity, and skin prick testing?

Issues related to empirical dietary restriction are important, but they have been inadequately studied among children with atopic dermatitis (AD). To evaluate whether any association exists between food atopy, food avoidance, and AD severity, investigators in the present study reviewed all skin prick tests (SPTs) performed between January 2005 and April 2006 at a pediatric dermatology clinic and correlated findings with history of food avoidance and eczema severity. Only 13% of 114 children with AD had a positive SPT for beef.

Assessing itch in children with atopic dermatitis treated with tacrolimus: objective versus subjective assessment.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the clinical efficacy of tacrolimus for itch reduction in children with atopic dermatitis (AD). Seven children (3 boys and 4 girls) with AD were treated with topical tacrolimus for a consecutive 2-wk period after a 1-wk run-in. The clinical severity of AD was assessed with the SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) scale.

Efficacy and tolerability of a Chinese herbal medicine concoction for treatment of atopic dermatitis: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Background: There has been considerable interest in traditional Chinese herbal medicine (TCHM) as a treatment for atopic dermatitis (AD). A twice-daily concoction of an ancestral formula containing five herbs has been found to be beneficial in an open study.

Objectives: To assess the efficacy and tolerability of the concoction in children with AD.

Which aeroallergens are associated with eczema severity?

We investigated if a correlation exists between aeroallergen sensitization and the severity of eczema. Data on aeroallergen response to skin-prick testing (SPT) and disease severity of children with eczema (n = 119) were evaluated. Atopy, as defined by at least one positive response to aeroallergen skin prick testing, was found in > 90% of eczema patients.

A malignant itch.

We report an unusual presentation of a previously healthy three-year-old Chinese girl with a four-week history of apparently unexplained generalized intense itch. She had no past history of atopy or xerosis. Despite the severe itch, she had only minimal scratch marks on her right gluteal region but no flexural involvement.

Gender disparity in paediatric hospital admissions.

Introduction: To determine the magnitude of gender difference in paediatric hospital admissions.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed discharge data of general medical paediatric admissions to a university teaching hospital in Hong Kong from 1984 to 2000. Based on ICD-9 codes, 9 broad categories of disease with related sub-categories were used, namely respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurological, renal, cardiac, haematological/oncological, neonatal, miscellaneous and social.

Corticosteroids are not present in a traditional Chinese medicine formulation for atopic dermatitis in children.

Introduction: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used as an alternative in treating children with atopic dermatitis (AD) but its efficacy and potential side effects are debatable. We recently used a TCM capsule (PentaHerbs) on 9 children and observed significant reductions in clinical scores of disease severity. However, there have been concerns that the therapeutic effects of many forms of TCM are due to the presence of corticosteroids.

Normative data for triceps and subscapular skinfold thicknesses of Chinese infants.

Unlabelled: Skinfold thickness is a validated parameter of subcutaneous fat accumulation. Data on triceps and subscapular skinfold thicknesses were collected from 10,043 (5318 males, 4725 females) singletons at 12 hospitals with gestation 31-42 wk. The LMS method using maximum penalized likelihood was used to perform model fitting of the anthropometric centiles for these parameters.

Steroid fears in children with eczema.

Background: Topical glucocorticoids (GCs) are the mainstay of treatment for eczema, but GC phobia and fears are very common among the parents of paediatric patients.

Aim: To survey the nature and extent of "fears" of GC use, and to evaluate if disease severity is associated with such fears.

Methods: Patients with eczema managed in the paediatric dermatology outpatient clinic of a university hospital were recruited in this survey.

Neurologic and radiologic manifestations of three girls surviving acute carbon monoxide poisoning.

We report the neurologic and radiologic manifestations of three adolescent girls with acute carbon monoxide poisoning. The girls were found collapsed and unconscious in a bathroom where liquid petroleum gas was being used as heating fuel. As hyperbaric oxygen therapy was not available locally, they only received oxygen supplementation via nasal cannula (4 L/minute) as treatment in the first 2 days.

Exhaled nitric oxide levels are not correlated with eczema severity in Chinese children with atopic dermatitis.

Asthma is a common atopic disease associated with atopic dermatitis (AD) and allergic rhinitis (AR). Exhaled nitric oxide level (eNO) has been found to be an interesting noninvasive marker of disease severity in children with asthma. However, it is uncertain if eNO may be confounded by any coexisting AD or AR.

Lung damage may induce thrombocytopenia.

Thrombocytopenia is common in patients with lung diseases. Lung injury is associated with deranged platelet homeostasis. The potential mechanisms underlying this association were investigated in this study.

CDLQI, SCORAD and NESS: are they correlated?

Background: Quality of life (QOL) and clinical severity scores are important parameters in the evaluation of distress experienced by children with atopic dermatitis (AD). The SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCOARD) is a widely used clinical score for assessing AD symptomatology over the preceding 3 days and the Nottingham Eczema Severity Score (NESS) is another score useful for AD symptoms over the preceding 12 months.

Objective: We evaluated if these parameters are correlated with QOL in children with AD.

Lesson from performing SCORADs in children with atopic dermatitis: subjective symptoms do not correlate well with disease extent or intensity.

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a distressing disease associated with pruritus and sleep disturbance. It is not known how well these symptoms correlate with the extent and intensity of eczematous involvement. We evaluated whether: (i) the level of sleep loss correlates with pruritus and (ii) the level of pruritus correlates with the extent or severity of AD in children according to the SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) index.

Chinese nursing students' attitudes toward traditional Chinese medicine.

In this study, we examined Chinese nursing students' attitudes toward and use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Survey questionnaires were distributed to 439 nursing students, 263 of whom (60%) returned them. Of the respondents, 92% had used TCM, while 48% had used TCM at least once during the previous year.

Thin-Section CT 12 Months After the Diagnosis of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Pediatric Patients.

Objective: The objective of our study was to report the thin-section CT findings 12 months after the diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in pediatric patients who had recovered clinically but had persistent abnormal CT findings 6 months after the diagnosis. The clinical data for these patients were correlated to identify risk factors that might increase the likelihood of the development of CT abnormalities.

Subjects And Methods: The study involved an extended 12-month thin-section CT follow-up of 16 of 47 pediatrics patients with SARS coronavirus-associated pneumonia proven serologically (21 girls and 26 boys; age range, 1.

Topical 5-fluorouracil has no additional benefit in treating common warts with cryotherapy: a single-centre, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

The role of topical 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in treating common warts is not well defined. We tried to evaluate the efficacy and adverse effects of combination cryotherapy and topical 5% 5-FU ointment in the treatment of common warts. The study was a single-centre, double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial.

Nocturnal wrist movements are correlated with objective clinical scores and plasma chemokine levels in children with atopic dermatitis.

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a distressing disease associated with pruritus and sleep disturbance. Scratching due to pruritus is an important mechanism in the exacerbation of AD but is difficult to document in the home environment.

Objectives: To evaluate whether nocturnal wrist activities, defined as average acceleration in the early hours of sleep, were correlated with components of the SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) index and various AD-associated chemokine markers.

Dietary restriction and supplementation in children with atopic eczema.

Issues on empirical dietary restriction or supplementation are important but inadequately studied in children with atopic eczema (AE). The dietary habits of children with AE followed at a paediatric dermatology clinic (n = 179) were compared with those without eczema (n = 78). The mothers of 53% of the patients with or without eczema did not breastfeed their children.

Air versus ground transportation of artificially ventilated neonates: comparative differences in selected cardiopulmonary parameters.

Objective: To assess if cardiopulmonary interventions and abnormal CO2 tension are more likely in intubated neonates transported by air versus ground.

Methods: We reviewed the transport records of all ventilated neonates retrieved to a pediatric teaching hospital in the United States within a 12-month period. Demographic data, underlying diagnosis, pretransport and posttransport ventilation settings and blood gas data, and transport data were recorded.

Clinical features associated with nasal Staphylococcus aureus colonisation in Chinese children with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis.

Introduction: Staphylococcus aureus colonisation/infection is common in children with atopic dermatitis (AD).

Materials And Methods: We evaluated the nasal and body swabs of Chinese children with moderate-to-severe AD as assessed using SCORing-Atopic-Dermatitis (SCORAD) score. Swabs were taken from the right nostril, 5 flexural sites (anterior neck, antecubital fossae and popliteal fossae) and the skin area most severely affected (with oozing/crusting) for bacteriologic culture.

Critical airway obstruction, superior vena cava syndrome, and spontaneous cardiac arrest in a child with acute leukemia.

We report the unusual presentation of a previously healthy girl with sudden cardiopulmonary arrest caused by acute lymphoblastic leukemia and mediastinal involvement leading to acute tracheal and airway obstruction. Despite active resuscitation and mechanical ventilation, she developed severe cerebral edema as a result of cerebral asphyxia. She also had facial edema caused by superior vena cava obstruction, a high peripheral white cell count with blast differentials, and renal failure.

Hyperventilation at referring hospitals is common before transport in intubated children with neurological diseases.

Objective: To assess if cardiopulmonary complications and abnormal carbon dioxide tension are more likely in intubated children with neurological diseases undergoing transport.

Methods: We reviewed the transport records of all ventilated children retrieved to a pediatric teaching hospital in the United States within a 12-month period.

Results: Twenty-seven children were transported by ground (n = 11), helicopter (n = 10), and fixed-wing aircraft (n = 6).

A survey of attitudes toward homosexuality in Hong Kong chinese medical students.

Background: Homosexuality is now considered an alternative lifestyle occurring with some regularity as a variant of human sexuality, rather than a pathological disorder. It is important to understand the attitudes of medical professionals toward homosexuality, as their attitudes may influence their approach to gay men and lesbians as patients. It is also important to understand the current attitudes of medical students who will be the future generation of health care providers.