Factors affecting intensive care length of stay in critically ill pediatric patients with burn injuries.

Background: Burns in children are often complex injuries, leading to prolonged length of stay (LOS) and significant morbidity. LOS in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) is a key measure for evaluating illness severity, clinical outcomes, and quality of care. Accurate prediction of LOS is vital for improving care planning and resource allocation.

Fostering patients' participation in oncology research by developing psychological empowerment and a sense of community.

Objectives: A "patient-researcher" training intervention was designed to improve participants' empowerment by building on their level of critical health literacy and to build a trustful partnership between participants and researchers, with the longer-term objective of co-constructing a community-based research project. The participants in the training intervention were recruited through the collaborative research platform "Seintinelles". This training intervention was aimed at patients or former patients suffering from cancer.

The Safety of Pediatric Bedside Tracheostomy.

Objective: Traditionally, pediatric tracheostomy has been viewed as a technically demanding procedure with a high complication rate, requiring the routine use of a formal operating room. Pediatric bedside tracheostomy in an intensive care unit (ICU) setting has not been widely reported, in contrast to the widespread adult bedside ICU tracheostomy. Transport of these critically ill, multiple life support systems dependent patients can be technically difficult, labor intensive, and potentially risky for these patients.

Differential silencing of STAT3 isoforms leads to changes in STAT3 activation.

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is a transcription factor involved in multiple fundamental biological processes and a key player in cancer development and progression. STAT3 is activated upon tyrosine phosphorylation and is constitutively active in various malignancies; therefore, the expression of pSTAT3 has been recognized as a predictor of poor survival. STAT3 encodes two alternatively-spliced STAT3 isoforms: the full-length STAT3α isoform and the truncated STAT3β isoform.

miR-155: A Potential Biomarker for Predicting Mortality in COVID-19 Patients.

COVID-19, a pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to pose diagnostic and therapeutic challenges due to its unpredictable clinical course. Prognostic biomarkers may improve care by enabling quick identification of patients who can be safely discharged home versus those who may need careful respiratory monitoring and support. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have risen to prominence as biomarkers for many disease states and as tools to assist in medical decisions.

Protective effect of soluble Klotho in pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass support-A pilot study.

Objective: The Klotho protein family plays important roles in several metabolic pathways. Soluble Klotho has been recently put forward as an antiaging protein, demonstrating renal and cardiovascular protective traits. Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) support during cardiac surgery has been implicated in several adverse outcomes in pediatric and adult patients.

Invasive Group A Streptococcus Infection in Children in Central Israel in 2012-2019.

Background: Group A Streptococcus can cause serious and sometimes life-threatening disease in children. The past few years have witnessed a rise in invasive group A Streptococcus infection (iGASi) for unclear reasons. This study attempted to describe the epidemiology, the clinical and demographic characteristics and the outcomes associated with iGASi in hospitalized children in central Israel.

MiRNA-124a: a Potential Biomarker for Neurological Deficits Following Cardiac Surgery in Pediatric Patients.

Brain injury is a major source of patient morbidity after cardiac surgery in children. New early accurate biomarkers are needed for the diagnosis of patients at risk for cerebral postoperative damage. Specific circulating miRNAs have been found as suitable biomarkers for many diseases.

Thrombocytopenia and Bloodstream Infection: Incidence and Implication on Length of Stay in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

The incidence and prognosis of thrombocytopenia in critically ill patients with bloodstream infection (BSI) is not well delineated in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) setting. We assessed these variables in our PICU and sought to determine whether thrombocytopenia could serve as a prognostic marker for length of stay (LOS). The study was conducted at the medical PICU of a university hospital, on all critically ill pediatric patients consecutively admitted during a 3-year period.

[POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN ISRAEL].

The Covid-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges to many aspects of life, including work processes to which we have become accustomed. Health systems world-wide have been affected in numerous ways and face epic and unprecedented challenges. Medical education, both in Israel and around the world, has been deeply impacted.

[RESIDENCY EXAMINATIONS IN THE COURSE OF THE COVID-19 CRISIS: THE EFFORTS OF THE ISRAELI SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL TO EXECUTE THE FINAL BOARD ORAL EXAMINATIONS DURING A LOCAL AND A WORLDWIDE PANDEMIC].

Introduction: The Israeli Scientific Council is responsible for the physician's training process and the residency exams. These are performed in two phases: Stage A (written examination) and Stage B (the final Board oral examination). The COVID-19 pandemic started in Israel a few weeks before the scheduled spring 2020 Stage B exams and had a major impact, not only on the health and economic systems in Israel, but also on the residency exams.

STAT3 isoforms differentially affect ACE2 expression: A potential target for COVID-19 therapy.

The SARS-coronavirus 2 is the aetiologic agent COVID-19. ACE2 has been identified as a cell entry receptor for the virus. Therefore, trying to understand how the gene is controlled has become a major goal.

Impact of rotavirus vaccine on admissions due to acute gastroenteritis and rotavirus gastroenteritis in Israel.

Aim: We examined the impact of insertion of the Rotavirus vaccine (RVV) into the Israeli National Immunisation Programme (NIP) on hospitalisations due to both acute gastroenteritis (AGE) and Rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) in children.

Methods: We retrospectively analysed the medical records of children aged <5 years admitted with a diagnosis of AGE between 2008 and 2016 in two children's hospitals in central Israel. Clinical, laboratory, microbiological data and RV immunisation status were retrieved.

Preoperative miRNA-208a as a Predictor of Postoperative Complications in Children with Congenital Heart Disease Undergoing Heart Surgery.

Major perioperative cardiovascular events are important causes of morbidity in pediatric patients with congenital heart disease who undergo reparative surgery. Current preoperative clinical risk assessment strategies have poor accuracy for identifying patients who will sustain adverse events following heart surgery. There is an ongoing need to integrate clinical variables with novel technology and biomarkers to accurately predict outcome following pediatric heart surgery.

Predictors for plication performance following diaphragmatic paralysis in children.

Introduction And Objectives: Diaphragmatic paralysis (DP) in children can result from various etiologies. Guidelines for patient selection for diaphragmatic plication (DPL) are lacking. Our objectives were to describe the etiologies of DP and to determine the risk factors and predictors for DPL in the pediatric population.

[POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION ACCREDITATION IN ISRAEL].

Accreditation of Post-Graduate Medical Education permits medical institutions to train residents, allowing them to achieve specialist certification. An accreditation system usually employs several tools such as site-visits, information gathering and occasionally self-evaluation, to determine adherence to pre-defined standards. The Scientific Council of the Israeli Medical Association is entrusted by law on this accreditation system in Israel.

[SURGICAL RESIDENCY IN THE ERA OF RESTRICTED WORKING HOURS].

Post-Graduate Medical Education in the surgical professions, as in other medical professions as well, has gone through an organizational revolution during the past 10-15 years. Catalyzers of this change were the information revolution, technological changes, life-work balance needs of residents, legalization of the medical system and different duty hours' restrictions that followed. These changes require rethinking traditional Post-Graduate Medical Education and adaptation of teaching methods, quality measurement methods, new definition of program director's role and more.

[POSTGRADUATE TRAINING IS OUR SPECIALTY].

In recent years, following public expectations for high quality medical care and a teaching system that can adapt to public needs, changes are being implemented in medical education. The Scientific Council of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) is responsible, under the Physicians Ordinance, for the planning and supervision of the physicians' specialization system in Israel and promotes post graduate medical education of the highest quality for the advancement of medicine in Israel. In this issue, we highlight the key goals of medical education: knowledge acquisition, skills imparting and application of professional values, as well as the different tasks the Scientific Council has undertaken in order to advance them.

Whole exome sequencing in childhood-onset lupus frequently detects single gene etiologies.

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) comprise a diverse range of clinical manifestations. To date, more than 30 single gene causes of lupus/lupus like syndromes in humans have been identified. In the clinical setting, identifying the underlying molecular diagnosis is challenging due to phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity.

Lobectomy on ECMO as a Life-Saving Procedure following Necrotizing Pneumonia in a Toddler: A Case Study.

Necrotizing pneumonia is a severe form of pneumonia that is mainly treated with conservative treatment, including antibiotics. We report a unique case of necrotizing pneumonia due to group A streptococcus infection in an 18-month-old boy who required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support. Following surgical lobectomy, the child was weaned off ECMO and recovered uneventfully.

Dehydration as a Rare Cause of Pulmonary Artery Thrombosis in a 2-Week-Old Term Neonate.

Pulmonary arterial thrombosis is an extremely rare occurrence in the neonatal population. We describe a 2-week-old female neonate who presented in critical condition with severe cyanosis and dehydration and was found to have a large thrombus in the main branches of the pulmonary arteries. She was successfully treated with surgical embolectomy.

Treatment Outcomes of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Bacteremia in Critically Ill Children: A Multicenter Experience.

Objectives: Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a gram-negative opportunistic bacterium that may cause a myriad of clinical diseases in immunocompromised individuals. We aimed to describe the clinical characteristics, risk factors, mortality, and treatment of S. maltophilia bacteremia in critically ill children, a topic on which data are sparse.