Elevated inflammatory markers combined with positive pneumococcal urinary antigen are a good predictor of pneumococcal community-acquired pneumonia in children.

Background: Our objective was to evaluate procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) as predictors of a pneumococcal etiology in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in hospitalized children.

Methods: Children requiring hospitalization for CAP were prospectively enrolled. The following indices were determined: antibodies against pneumococcal surface proteins (anti-PLY, pneumococcal histidine triad D, pneumococcal histidine triad E, LytB and pneumococcal choline-binding protein A), viral serology, nasopharyngeal cultures and polymerase chain reaction for 13 respiratory viruses, blood pneumococcal polymerase chain reaction, pneumococcal urinary antigen, PCT and CRP.

Neurodevelopment outcome of newborns with cerebral subependymal pseudocysts at 18 and 46 months: a prospective study.

Objectives: Subependymal pseudocysts (SEPC) are cerebral periventricular cysts located on the floor of the lateral ventricle and result from regression of the germinal matrix. They are increasingly diagnosed on neonatal cranial ultrasound. While associated pathologies are reported, information about long-term prognosis is missing, and we aimed to investigate long-term follow-up of these patients.

[Neurodevelopmental follow-up of premature children in Lausanne and Geneva].

Preterm children born before 32 weeks of gestation represent 1% of the annual births in Switzerland, and are the most at risk of neurodevelopmental disabilities. A neurological surveillance is thus implemented in the neonatal units, and multidisciplinary neurodevelopmental follow-up is offered to all our preterm patients. The follow-up clinics of the University hospitals in Lausanne and Geneva follow the Swiss guidelines for follow-up.

[Pediatrics. Developmental care in neonatology].

Developmental care is a multidisciplinary approach aiming at improving the premature newborn's well-being through individualized observation and care, and at limiting environmental nociceptive stimuli. The aim is to lessen neonatal morbidity and enhance long-term psychomotor development in this population of high-risk newborns.

Immunity to pneumococcal surface proteins in children with community-acquired pneumonia: a distinct pattern of responses to pneumococcal choline-binding protein A.

The aetiological diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is challenging in children, and serological markers would be useful surrogates for epidemiological studies of pneumococcal CAP. We compared the use of anti-pneumolysin (Ply) antibody alone or with four additional pneumococcal surface proteins (PSPs) (pneumococcal histidine triad D (PhtD), pneumococcal histidine triad E (PhtE), LytB, and pneumococcal choline-binding protein A (PcpA)) as serological probes in children hospitalized with CAP. Recent pneumococcal exposure (positive blood culture for Streptococcus pneumoniae, Ply(+) blood PCR finding, and PSP seroresponse) was predefined as supporting the diagnosis of presumed pneumococcal CAP (P-CAP).