Publications by authors named "Sara Rodriguez-Lopez"

Background: Early detection of critical events in hospitalized patients improves clinical outcomes and reduces mortality rates. Traditional early warning score systems, such as the National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2), effectively identify at-risk patients. Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) could enhance the predictive accuracy and operational efficiency of such systems.

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Background: Increasing evidence suggests an association between childhood obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and metabolic syndrome, with more research available on the potential impacts of positive airway pressure (PAP) on metabolic markers in children. The purpose of this systematic review is to provide a systematic synthesis of the evidence on the effect of PAP use on metabolic markers in children with OSA.

Methods: A search strategy with terms for "OSA" and metabolic markers in pediatrics was run to systematically assess 5 databases until August 26, 2022.

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Introduction: Posterior urethral valves (PUVs) is a congenital condition in which an obstruction in the urethra prevents drainage of urine from the bladder in males, with up to 60% of children diagnosed developing chronic kidney disease (CKD). The primary aim of this study was to identify novel factors that may predict development of CKD and end-stage real disease (ESRD ) in children with PUVs to potentially address modifiable factors and delay progression. The secondary aim was to compare rates of catheterization and incontinence between our patients and other case series to provide information to parents about long-term bladder outcomes.

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  • A study investigated the differences in corticosteroid dosage and duration of treatment for childhood nephrotic syndrome across 11 pediatric nephrology sites in Canada, highlighting the variability in treatment practices.
  • Data from 328 children revealed that the treatment dosage decreased as patients aged, and children of African and Indigenous background experienced longer treatment durations compared to White patients.
  • The findings suggest that the location of treatment contributes significantly to variations in corticosteroid prescription practices among pediatric nephrologists.
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Background: There is known practice variation in the treatment of frequently relapsing, steroid-dependent, and steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome in children. Rituximab is an emerging therapy for difficult-to-treat nephrotic syndrome; however, there are no clear treatment guidelines. We therefore hypothesized that a wide variety of approaches to this therapy exist.

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Introduction: Childhood obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a highly prevalent disorder that may directly contribute to the development of obesity, hypertension and renal injury. Although those associations seem to be clearer in adults, studies in children have revealed conflicting results and updated synthesis of the evidence is lacking. The aim of this systematic review is to summarise the available evidence on the effect of OSA on obesity, systemic blood pressure and kidney function, to help to elucidate whether respiratory interventions to correct OSA would have the potential to improve those outcomes.

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Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is not only common within paediatrics but is associated with critical childhood metabolic morbidity such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and glucose tolerance impairment. Increasing evidence suggests an association between childhood OSA and metabolic syndrome such as markers of cardiovascular disease, systemic hypertension, glucose intoleranceand increased lipid profile. Recent studies have targeted changes in metabolic markers in children using non-invasive ventilation (NIV) but no systematic reviews are available to summarise this emerging evidence.

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  • Advances in care have led to more neonates surviving cardiac repairs, prompting a study to assess the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and hypertension six years post-surgery, as well as the potential impact of cardiac surgery-associated acute kidney injury (CS-AKI).
  • The study involved 58 children who underwent congenital heart surgery between 2005 and 2012, revealing that 17% had CKD, 30% had hypertension, and 58% experienced CS-AKI; however, CS-AKI was not linked to CKD or hypertension.
  • The findings highlight the importance of monitoring for CKD and hypertension in these children, as the conditions are prevalent, and the study suggests current definitions of CS-AKI
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  • There is a lack of data and guidelines regarding renal follow-up for neonates after cardiovascular surgery, leading to a study that evaluates post-operative renal function and factors affecting follow-up care.
  • A retrospective study was conducted on children aged 5-7 who had neonatal cardiac surgery, analyzing factors linked to post-discharge creatinine measurements and estimating glomerular filtration rate using laboratory values.
  • Findings revealed that 30% of kids did not have any creatinine measured after surgery, and for those who did, there was no consistent follow-up pattern, indicating the need for a systematic follow-up approach to monitor kidney health in these children.
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Objective: The aim of this study was to prospectively test the performance and potential for clinical integration of software that automatically calculates the right-to-left ventricular (RV/LV) diameter ratio from computed tomography pulmonary angiography images.

Methods: Using 115 computed tomography pulmonary angiography images that were positive for acute pulmonary embolism, we prospectively evaluated RV/LV ratio measurements that were obtained as follows: (1) completely manual measurement (reference standard), (2) completely automated measurement using the software, and (3 and 4) using a customized software interface that allowed 2 independent radiologists to manually adjust the automatically positioned calipers.

Results: Automated measurements underestimated (P < 0.

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In patients at risk of intraventrcular thrombosis, the benefits of chronic anticoagulation therapy need to be balanced with the pro-hemorrhagic effects of therapy. Blood stasis in the cardiac chambers is a recognized risk factor for intracardiac thrombosis and potential cardiogenic embolic events. In this work, we present a novel flow image-based method to assess the location and extent of intraventricular stasis regions inside the left ventricle (LV) by digital processing flow-velocity images obtained either by phase-contrast magnetic resonance (PCMR) or 2D color-Doppler velocimetry (echo-CDV).

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Background And Purpose: Right Ventricular to Left Ventricular (RV/LV) diameter ratio has been shown to be a prognostic biomarker for patients suffering from acute Pulmonary Embolism (PE). While Computed Tomography Pulmonary Angiography (CTPA) images used to confirm a clinical suspicion of PE do include information of the heart, a numerical RV/LV diameter ratio is not universally reported, likely because of lack in training, inter-reader variability in the measurements, and additional effort by the radiologist. This study designs and validates a completely automated Computer Aided Detection (CAD) system to compute the axial RV/LV diameter ratio from CTPA images so that the RV/LV diameter ratio can be a more objective metric that is consistently reported in patients for whom CTPA diagnoses PE.

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