Percutaneous core needle biopsy of neuroblastoma in the pediatric population: what have we learned in the last decade.

Introduction: Historically, neuroblastoma has been diagnosed by surgical open biopsy (SB). In recent decades, core needle biopsy (CNB) has replaced surgical biopsy due to its safe and adequate method of obtaining tissue diagnosis.

Aim: Our study aimed to assess the effectiveness of CNB in obtaining tissue diagnosis for neuroblastoma and evaluate its safety profile in terms of post-operative complications, in comparison to SB.

A Need for a Novel Survival Risk Scoring System for Intensive Care Admissions Due to Sepsis in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Patients.

Children with hemato-oncological diseases or following stem cell transplantation (SCT) are at high risk for life-threatening infections; sepsis in this population constitutes a substantial proportion of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admissions. The current pediatric prognostic scoring tools to evaluate illness severity and mortality risk are designed for the general pediatric population and may not be adequate for this vulnerable subpopulation. Retrospective analysis was performed on all PICU admissions for sepsis in children with hemato-oncological diseases or post-SCT, in a single tertiary pediatric hospital between 2008 and 2021 ( = 233).

An outbreak of African swine fever in small-scale pigs, Gauteng, South Africa, July 2020.

Objectives: Since 2012, outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF) in domestic pigs have increased outside of South Africa's ASF control zone. This study describes the epidemiological investigation and findings of an ASF outbreak in a small-scale pig unit in Gauteng Province and makes recommendations to prevent future outbreaks.

Methods: PCR testing and molecular analysis were performed on pig tissue samples.