The Association Between a Holistic Review in Admissions Workshop and the Diversity of Accepted Applicants and Students Matriculating to Medical School.

Purpose: The authors tested for an association between the Association of American Medical Colleges' holistic review in admissions (HRA) workshop and the compositional diversity of medical school accepted applicants and matriculants in schools that held workshops compared with those that did not.

Method: The authors examined school-level data from 134 medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education for the years 2006-2016 using information from the American Medical College Application Service. They used a fixed-effects regression to examine the within-school association between an HRA workshop and four measures of diversity: percent first-generation college student, percent black/African American, percent Hispanic, and overall level of racial/ethnic diversity as measured by a diversity index.

Numbers of MD and DO Graduates in Graduate Medical Education Programs Accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American Osteopathic Association.

Purpose: To determine the number of DO (doctor of osteopathic medicine) and MD (doctor of medicine) residents in training programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) and to examine the behavior of DO residents who moved between the two types of programs.

Method: In 2013, the authors linked data on residents reported in ACGME-accredited and AOA-accredited programs in 2009, 2010, and 2011 to produce a count of all residents, including an unduplicated count of residents reported in joint programs. DO residents were identified who moved between AOA-accredited and ACGME-accredited programs.

A randomized controlled trial of motavizumab versus palivizumab for the prophylaxis of serious respiratory syncytial virus disease in children with hemodynamically significant congenital heart disease.

Children with hemodynamically significant congenital heart disease (CHD) are at risk for serious respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease. This study was designed to assess the safety and tolerability of motavizumab versus palivizumab in children with CHD and was not powered for efficacy. Patients (n = 1236) aged ≤24 mo were randomized to receive five monthly doses (15 mg/kg) of motavizumab or palivizumab during the RSV season.

Student vaccination requirements of U.S. health professional schools: a survey.

Background: Unvaccinated health care personnel are at increased risk for transmitting vaccine-preventable diseases to their patients. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends that health care personnel, including students, receive measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, varicella, influenza, and pertussis vaccines. Prematriculation vaccination requirements of health professional schools represent an early opportunity to ensure that health care personnel receive recommended vaccines.

Palivizumab and the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus illness in pediatric patients with congenital heart disease.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a significant pathogen for infants and children with congenital heart disease. Non-sustained immunity and failure to develop an effective vaccine has steered RSV management toward a passive immunotherapy strategy in at-risk children. Palivizumab is a humanized murine monoclonal antibody targeting the RSV envelope F glycoprotein.

Profound hypothermia with alpha-stat pH management during open-heart surgery is associated with choreoathetosis.

A retrospective chart review was conducted to examine risk factors associated with the occurrence of choreoathetosis, a rare but significant complication of open-heart surgery in children. Ten children were identified as having developed choreoathetosis after cardiac surgery. Their charts were reviewed and compared with 33 age- and diagnosis-matched controls who underwent open-heart surgery during the same time period.

Evidence of pulmonary vascular disease after heart transplantation for Fontan circulation failure.

Objectives: Elevated pulmonary vascular resistance may contribute to late Fontan circulation failure but is difficult to assess in such patients. Our aims were to assess outcomes of patients with failed Fontan circulation after heart transplantation and to determine whether elevated pulmonary vascular resistance might have contributed to the failure.

Methods: Fifteen patients (14 Fontan circulations, 1 Kawashima circulation) underwent transplantation.

Palivizumab prophylaxis reduces hospitalization due to respiratory syncytial virus in young children with hemodynamically significant congenital heart disease.

Objectives: To evaluate the safety, tolerance, and efficacy of palivizumab in children with hemodynamically significant congenital heart disease (CHD).

Study Design: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial included 1287 children with CHD randomly assigned 1:1 to receive 5 monthly intramuscular injections of 15 mg/kg palivizumab or placebo. Children were followed for 150 days.

Improved pretransplant management of infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome enables discharge to home while waiting for transplantation.

For infants whose families select primary transplantation for hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), the waiting time averages 3 months. Given the relative shortage of organs, the morbidity and mortality of these patients have been high. Therefore, pretransplant management is critical to improve the number of patients who survive to transplantation.

Mechanical limitation of pulmonary blood flow facilitates heart transplantation in older infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Objectives: Progression of pulmonary vascular disease limits heart transplantation for hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) to early infancy. Our objective was to assess the impact of bilateral pulmonary artery banding (PAB) on the operative courses of HLHS infants transplanted at ages older than 4 months.

Methods: Courses of all HLHS patients in our center who remained listed to age >or=120 days before heart transplantation were assessed.

Hepatic dysfunction following the Fontan procedure.

Objectives: The Fontan procedure offers a palliation for the hemodynamic derangements associated with congenital heart lesions characterized by a single functional ventricle, but it causes a chronically elevated systemic venous pressure that may result in hepatic congestion. The objective of this study was to characterize hepatic function and its relationship to cardiac function in children who had undergone the Fontan procedure.

Methods: In a cross-sectional study of 11 children aged 38 months to 216 months (mean, 149 months), the authors evaluated indices of cardiac and hepatic function, including galactose clearance, Doppler hepatic ultrasonography, synthetic function, and markers of liver injury, at 9 months to 176 months (mean, 100 months) after children had undergone the Fontan procedure.

Cardiac involvement in inflammatory disease: systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatic fever, and Kawasaki disease.

This review focuses on treatment and preventive issues relevant to cardiac problems associated with systemic lupus erythematosus, acute rheumatic fever, and Kawasaki disease in adolescence. Cardiac abnormalities occur as a result of the immune dysfunction and as side effects of therapy. With increased survival, more cardiac complications are being detected.

Heart transplantation in children: indications. Report of the Ad Hoc Subcommittee of the Pediatric Committee of the American Society of Transplantation (AST).

This review details the indications for heart transplantation in children. Contraindications have evolved from absolute to relative. Controversial issues remain and this paper represents a consensus of more than a dozen centers that have programs that remain active performing pediatric heart transplants.

Respiratory syncytial virus immune globulin for prophylaxis against respiratory syncytial virus disease in infants and children with congenital heart disease. The Cardiac Study Group.

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of respiratory syncytial virus immune globulin administered intravenously (RSV-IGIV) in reducing hospitalization for treatment of RSV in children with congenital heart disease (CHD).

Methods: Children younger than 4 years of age were randomly assigned to a treatment group receiving RSV-IGIV, 750 mg/kg, monthly or to a control group not receiving infusions. Surveillance for respiratory tract infections was carried out and management decisions were made by physicians blinded to treatment group.