Improvement in cystic fibrosis newborn screening program outcomes with genetic counseling via telemedicine.

Introduction: The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CF Foundation) recommends the provision of genetic counseling (GC) to help educate families and decrease anxiety around the cystic fibrosis (CF) newborn screening process. Unfortunately, access to genetic counselors is limited, especially for CF trained genetic counselors. We hypothesized that the GC process for families could be improved by utilizing telemedicine to leverage the availability of two dedicated, CF trained genetic counselors to provide access to GC for several CF centers.

Implementation of standardized asthma management programs in outpatient settings.

Purpose Of Review: This article reviews new approaches, facilitators, barriers, and opportunities to increasing adoption of standardized asthma management programs in the outpatient care setting.

Recent Findings: Primary care clinicians providing asthma care in the outpatient setting are challenged by the complexity of guidelines and want standardization of tools that are easy to use and that can be integrated within their practice's workflow. Programs that integrate clinical decision support tools within a practice's electronic health record and provide support from specialists may enhance uptake of asthma management programs in the outpatient setting and reduce asthma morbidity.

Repeated hot water and steam disinfection of Pari LC Plus® nebulizers alter nebulizer output.

Currently, cystic fibrosis patients require daily nebulized treatments to achieve optimal lung health. Growth of pathogenic bacteria in patient nebulizers is well known, and disinfection guidelines have been established. In this short communication, we sought to discover what effect, if any, repeated nebulization/disinfection cycles had on nebulizer output.

An evaluation strategy for potential QTc prolongation with chronic azithromycin therapy in cystic fibrosis.

Chronic azithromycin therapy is recommended for CF patients with persistent Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonization. Other macrolide antibiotics have been reported to cause QT prolongation, but cardiac effects of azithromycin have not been studied in pediatric populations. We analyzed changes in QTc interval after starting chronic azithromycin in a pediatric CF population.

Serial lung magnetic resonance imaging to monitor disease progression in a child with a diffuse alveolar hemorrhage syndrome.

Serial lung magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed in a child with diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH). To minimize radiation exposure with conventional serial chest computerized tomography (CT), serial MRIs of the lungs were used. This effectively monitored her disease process as well as detected acute hemorrhage after 5 years remission.

Clinical features cannot distinguish allergic from non-allergic asthma in children.

Objective: Environmental allergens are a major trigger of asthma, but not all asthmatics are allergic. This study was designed to review clinical characteristics in children with allergic and non-allergic asthma, based on responsiveness to allergy skin tests, in order to identify a combination of features that could distinguish allergic from non-allergic asthma in children.

Methods: Medical records of 321 children who had allergy skin testing were reviewed, and demographic and clinical data were compared between allergic and non-allergic patients.