Accidental Physical Trauma in Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs: A Scoping Review.

Background: Children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) may be at greater risk for accidental physical trauma. Interventions should be informed by the literature indicating incident characteristics and at-risk subpopulations.

Objective: To conduct a scoping review of accidental physical trauma in CYSHCN to characterize published literature and identify gaps.

Variable and Biological Effects of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticle Formulations.

Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeNPs) exhibit redox capacity with efficacy in disease models of oxidative stress. Here we compare, in parallel, three CeNP formulations with distinct chemical stabilizers and size. assays revealed antioxidant activity from all the CeNPs, but when administered to mice with a reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediated model of multiple sclerosis, only custom-synthesized Cerion NRx (CNRx) citrate-EDTA stabilized CeNPs provided protection against disease.

Tuberculin skin test and ELISPOT/T. SPOT.TB in children and adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

Background: There are controversies regarding the accuracy of the tuberculin skin test (TST) and methods based on the production of interferon gamma by sensitized T cells for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in pediatrics and immunosuppressed patients. Our objectives are to study TST and ELISPOT/T. SPOT.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis-induced neutrophil ectosomes decrease macrophage activation.

Background: The existence of ectosome-like microvesicles released by neutrophils was proposed a few decades ago. Other studies revealed that the innate immune response during mycobacterial infection is accompanied by an intense migration of neutrophils to the site of infection, which may be important during the acute phase of tuberculosis. We found that the ectosomes derived from infected neutrophils are biologically active and can influence the survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within macrophages.

The challenge of pediatric tuberculosis in face of new diagnostic techniques.

Objectives: To present an updated review concerning new assays for diagnosing tuberculosis based on in vitro interferon-gamma production by host T cells, and compare them with tuberculin skin test.

Methods: A literature review was carried out based on Medline and LILACS databases (2000-2008) searching for the following keywords: tuberculosis, interferon-gamma, quantiFERON, ELISPOT and T-SPOT.TB.

T-SPOT.TB responses during treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Background: Immune responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens could serve as surrogate markers of treatment response.

Methods: Using the T-SPOT.TB assay and frozen peripheral blood mononuclear cells, we enumerated ESAT-6- and CFP-10-specific IFN-gamma-producing T cells over time in pulmonary TB patients receiving directly observed treatment.