Extreme γ' fibrinogen levels in COVID-19 patients.

COVID-19 disease progression can be accompanied by a "cytokine storm" that leads to secondary sequelae such as acute respiratory distress syndrome. Several inflammatory cytokines have been associated with COVID-19 disease progression, but have high daily intra-individual variability. In contrast, we have shown that the inflammatory biomarker γ' fibrinogen (GPF) has a 6-fold lower coefficient of variability compared to other inflammatory markers such as hs-CRP.

The Pediatric Data Science and Analytics Subgroup of the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators Network: Use of Supervised Machine Learning Applications in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Research.

Objective: Perform a scoping review of supervised machine learning in pediatric critical care to identify published applications, methodologies, and implementation frequency to inform best practices for the development, validation, and reporting of predictive models in pediatric critical care.

Design: Scoping review and expert opinion.

Setting: We queried CINAHL Plus with Full Text (EBSCO), Cochrane Library (Wiley), Embase (Elsevier), Ovid Medline, and PubMed for articles published between 2000 and 2022 related to machine learning concepts and pediatric critical illness.

Nonresuscitation Fluid Accumulation and Outcomes After Pediatric Cardiac Surgery: Single-Center Retrospective Cohort Study.

Objectives: Postoperative patients after congenital cardiac surgery are at high risk of fluid overload (FO), which is known to be associated with poor outcomes. "Fluid creep," or nonresuscitation IV fluid in excess of maintenance requirement, is recognized as a modifiable factor associated with FO in the general PICU population, but has not been studied in congenital cardiac surgery patients. Our objective was to characterize fluid administration after congenital cardiac surgery, quantify fluid creep, and the association between fluid creep, FO, and outcome.

Recognizing Pediatric ARDS: Provider Use of the PALICC Recommendations in a Tertiary Pediatric ICU.

Background: For almost 50 years, pediatricians used adult guidelines to diagnose ARDS. In 2015, specific criteria for pediatric ARDS were defined. However, it remains unclear how frequently providers recognize pediatric ARDS and whether recognition affects adherence to consensus recommendations.

Glutamatergic neurometabolites during early abstinence from chronic methamphetamine abuse.

Background: The acute phase of abstinence from methamphetamine abuse is critical for rehabilitation success. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy has detected below-normal levels of glutamate+glutamine in anterior middle cingulate of chronic methamphetamine abusers during early abstinence, attributed to abstinence-induced downregulation of the glutamatergic systems in the brain. This study further explored this phenomenon.

Thalamic glutamate decreases with cigarette smoking.

Rationale: Findings from animal studies and human PET imaging indicate that nicotine and cigarette smoking affect glutamate (Glu) and related neurochemical markers in the brain and imply that smoking reduces extracellular Glu. As Glu release is mediated by nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), which are present at high concentrations in the thalamus, we examined the effects of smoking on thalamic Glu.

Objective: To determine the effects of tobacco smoking on thalamic glutamate levels.

Cigarette smoking and white matter microstructure.

Rationale: Diffusion tensor imaging has been used before in testing associations between cigarette smoking and white matter integrity, with inconsistent results. Published reports indicate higher fractional anisotropy (FA, a measure of linear water diffusion) in some brain regions and lower FA in others in adult smokers compared to nonsmokers. Adolescent smokers exhibited elevated FA at several brain regions and a positive correlation of FA in the genu corpus callosum with exposure to smoking (pack-years).

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and thought disorder in childhood schizophrenia.

Objective: Although magnetic resonance spectroscopy has identified metabolic abnormalities in adult and childhood schizophrenia, no prior studies have investigated the relationship between neurometabolites and thought disorder. This study examined this association in language-related brain regions using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging ((1)H MRSI).

Method: MRSI was acquired bilaterally from 28 youth with childhood-onset schizophrenia and 34 healthy control subjects in inferior frontal, middle frontal, and superior temporal gyri at 1.

1H MRSI and social communication deficits in pediatric complex partial seizures.

Purpose: To investigate relationships between regional brain metabolites, social communication deficits, and seizure frequency in children and adolescents with cryptogenic epilepsy with complex partial seizures (CPS).

Methods: In 12 children and adolescents with CPS and 23 age- and gender-matched healthy controls, we acquired proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) at 1.5 T and 30 ms echo-time from bilateral inferior frontal and superior temporal gyri, regions associated with social communication deficits.

White-matter abnormalities in brain during early abstinence from methamphetamine abuse.

Background: Previous studies revealed microstructural abnormalities in prefrontal white matter and corpus callosum of long-term abstinent chronic methamphetamine abusers. In view of the importance of the early abstinence period in treatment retention, we compared 23 methamphetamine-dependent subjects abstinent from methamphetamine for 7-13 days with 18 healthy comparison subjects. As certain metabolic changes in the brain first manifest after early abstinence from methamphetamine, it is also possible that microstructural white-matter abnormalities are not yet present during early abstinence.

Terbinafine-induced subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus.

Terbinafine is a synthetic oral allylamine that is used for systemic treatment of microscopy- or culture-proven dermatophyte infections of skin and nails. It is normally well-tolerated and side effects include transient gastrointestinal symptoms and skin reactions that can occur in up to 2.3% of treated patients.