: Respiratory viral infections (RVIs) exhibit seasonal patterns influenced by biological, ecological, and climatic factors. Weather variables such as temperature, humidity, and wind impact the transmission of droplet-borne viruses, potentially affecting disease severity. However, the role of climate in predicting complications in pediatric RVIs remains unclear, particularly in the context of climate-change-driven extreme weather events.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Nowadays children live in a digital world, exposed to relevant risks for their health and safety. The aim of this study is to investigate the use of multimedia devices in a sample of children and adolescents.
Methods: The study was performed between November 2018 and June 2019 in a third-level University Hospital, recruiting children and adolescents during general or specialistic follow-up visits.
We performed this study to evaluate factors associated with antibiotic prescriptions in children with adenovirus infection, since no studies have attempted to address this aspect in the pediatric population. Retrospective study of children younger than 18 years of age tested positive for adenovirus on a syndromic nasopharyngeal test from 2018 to 2023. We compared the need of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), invasive ventilation, and other respiratory support, viral etiologies, clinical presentations, imaging, and laboratory results in the precovid (2018-2019) and covid (2020-2022) period.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFever is among the most common reason for medical assessment and antibiotic prescription in practice. The aim of this study was to evaluate positive and negative predictive values of rapid nasopharyngeal swabs for respiratory pathogens to discriminate viral from bacterial infections. We prospectively tested children with signs and/or symptoms of infections (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The CHOP-INTEND is an established outcome measure used to assess motor function in young and weak SMA patients previously validated in type I infants older than 3 months.
Objective: The aim of our study was to assess the maturation of the CHOP-INTEND scores in a group of healthy infants, establishing which items of the scale can be reliably used in individuals younger than 3 months.
Methods: This is a prospective observational study.
Introduction: We performed this study aiming to evaluate changes in epidemiology, clinical presentation and outcomes of children hospitalized for viral lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI).
Methods: We performed a retrospective study of children younger than 18 years of age hospitalized for LRTIs with a positive respiratory viral testing from 2018 to 2022. We compared need of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), invasive ventilation, and other respiratory support, viral etiologies, clinical presentations, imaging, and laboratory results in the precovid (2018-2019) and covid (2020-2022) period.
The aim of this study was to evaluate a potential correlation between results of the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and the auxological/metabolic parameters in a cohort of overweight patients assessed for suspicion of hyperinsulinism. We analyzed 206 patients, comparing those with insulin peak below (nonhyperinsulinemic) and over 100 uIU/mL (hyperinsulinemic) at the OGTT. We found a significant difference in weight ( 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBronchiolitis remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children under 24 months. During the first year of the pandemic, non-pharmacological interventions resulted in a significant reduction of bronchiolitis cases. Early in 2021, a rebound of bronchiolitis was reported with a description of out-of-season outbreaks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Long coronavirus disease (COVID) is increasingly recognized in adults and children; however, it is still poorly characterized from a clinical and diagnostic perspective, particularly in the younger populations.
Case Presentation: We described the story of two sisters-with high social and academic performance before their severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection-who reported severe neurocognitive problems, initially classified as psychologic pandemic distress and eventually found to have significant brain hypometabolism.
Conclusions: We provided a detailed clinical presentation of neurocognitive symptoms in two sisters with long COVID associated with brain hypometabolism documented in both sisters.
Background: Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is a known orthopedic pathology of newborns that, if not diagnosed and treated, can lead to debilitating long-term consequences. Ultrasound has proven to be an effective method for the early diagnosis of this condition. Recently, reports of late DDH in populations at risk (breech presentation) and after negative ultrasound examination have emerged in the literature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: There is marked heterogeneity in clinicians’ choice of antibiotic duration for pediatric urinary tract infections (UTIs). Most patients with bacterial UTIs still receive between 7 and 10 days of antibiotics. Prolonged antibiotic exposure drives the emergence of resistance and increases the occurrence of adverse effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmerging data suggests that endotheliopathy changes can be associated with post covid condition (PCC) in adults. Research on the matter in children is lacking. We analyzed an extended coagulation profile including biomarkers of endothelial damage in children with PCC and compared it with a control group of children that fully recovered post- SARS-CoV-2 infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: Myopericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination were the most serious adverse events reported in children over 5 years of age. We want to summarise these cases, describing their incidence, clinical features, diagnostic pathways, therapeutic strategies and outcome.
Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted until 20 March 2022 by bibliographic electronic databases.
Background: Central precocious puberty (CPP) was an unexplored issue during COVID-19 pandemic and an important disease in the adolescence life. Our aim was to evaluate the incidence of the new cases of central precocious puberty (CPP) during COVID-19 pandemic, comparing these results with the data for the same period over the previous three years. The secondary objective was to analyze the rate of pubertal progression in children during COVID-19 outbreak.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental and physical health of the world population. This study aims to investigate incidence of sleep-related difficulties and post-traumatic stress disorder in the school-aged children after 1 year of the pandemic.
Methods: A sample of Italian children (6-12 years) was queried about their sleep behaviors after 1 year of the pandemic, answering the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ).
Limited data on the coagulation profile in children affected by the SARS-CoV-2 infection are available. We aimed to evaluate the role of d-dimers as predictors of poor outcomes in a pediatric population affected by the SARS-CoV-2 infection or multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). We performed a retrospective cross-sectional multicenter study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMediterr J Hematol Infect Dis
January 2022
A disparate group of rare hematological diseases characterized by impaired maturation of neutrophil granulocytes defines congenital neutropenias. Neutropenic patients are prone to recurrent infections beginning in the first months of life. Of interest is "cyclic neutropenia," an ultra-rare disorder revealed by sinusoidal variations in the neutrophil count and recurring infections every 21 days.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKawasaki disease (KD) is a childhood vasculitis of unknown etiology. The present study describes a case of KD shock syndrome that occurred in an infant (age, 16 months) following 7 days of high fever and persistent rash characterized by target-like and purpuric skin lesions. The child developed neurological manifestations such as altered consciousness and irritability.
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