Early Identification of Severe Sepsis in Pediatric Patients Using an Electronic Alert System.

Introduction: Prompt sepsis recognition and the initiation of standardized treatment bundles lead to improved outcomes. We developed automated severe sepsis alerts through the electronic medical record and paging system to aid clinicians in rapidly identifying pediatric patients with severe sepsis in our emergency department and inpatient units. Our Specific, Measurable, Applicable, Realistic, Timely aim was to improve 1-hour severe sepsis treatment bundle compliance to 60% with these electronic interruptive alerts.

The role of ultrasonography in predicting vesicoureteral reflux.

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of renal and bladder ultrasonography (RBU) in predicting vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) in infants and children.

Materials And Methods: A total of 134 children who had VUR demonstrated on voiding cystourethrography (VCU) and also had RBU within 1 month of the VCU were included in the study, which took place between January 2005 and December 2012. VUR and hydronephrosis were graded with standard methods on VCU and RBU, respectively.

Quantitative apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values as an imaging biomarker for fibrosis in pediatric Crohn's disease: preliminary experience.

Purpose: To compare histopathology with ADC values in strictured bowel segments in pediatric patients with known Crohn's disease and surgical bowel resection.

Methods: Magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) images of 14 subjects with Crohn's disease who had surgical bowel resection for strictures were retrospectively reviewed. Five of 14 subjects had DWI (b=0, 500, 1000) sequences included in the MRE study.

Importance of MRI in the diagnosis of vertebral involvement in generalized cystic lymphangiomatosis.

A 9-year-old boy presented with the sudden onset of pleuritic chest pain and on CT was found to have a large pleural effusion, mediastinal fluid, splenic lesions and multiple apparently sclerotic vertebral bodies. Subsequent MRI showed that those vertebral bodies that appeared sclerotic were in fact normal, and the vertebral bodies initially interpreted as normal had an abnormal T1 and T2 hyperintense signal on MRI and were relatively lucent on CT. MRI also demonstrated abnormal heterogeneous T2 hyperintense paraspinal tissue and several multicystic soft tissue masses.