Pediatric Resident Confidence in Assessing Neurological Cases: A Nationwide Survey.

Background: A relative shortage of pediatric neurologists in proportion to estimated neurological disorders often results in general pediatricians evaluating and treating children with complex neurological conditions. Dedicated rotations in pediatric neurology are not mandated during medical school or pediatric residency. We evaluated the perceptions of a large cohort of pediatric residents and program directors (PDs) regarding child neurology training.

Neurological Effects of COVID-19 in Children.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly across the world in 2020, affecting both adults and, to a lesser extent, children. In this article, the authors describe the neurologic manifestations of COVID-19 in children, including the epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical features, laboratory and imaging findings, and treatment options. The management of patients with concomitant neuroimmunologic disorders and drug interactions between medications used to treat COVID-19 and other neurologic disorders (especially immune-modifying drugs) is also discussed.

Refractory NMDA-receptor encephalitis in a teenager: A novel use of Bortezomib.

We report the case of a 14-year-old girl who was diagnosed with N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA)-receptor encephalitis, with severe features and autonomic instability, requiring intensive care unit admission. She had poor clinical response to the first-line therapies, she was then started on Rituximab and 6 cycles of Cytoxan infusion. She responded to Bortezomib therapy within 2 weeks of initiation, and with long-term sustenance of improvement in the long-term, also demonstrated by an improvement in NMDA titers .

Diagnosing Pseudotumor Cerebri: An Age-based Approach.

Investigators from Hillel-Yaffe, Carmel, and Bnai Zion Medical Centers in Israel studied the comparative clinical presentations and predisposing factors for idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) across age groups.

Evolution of Brain Glucose Metabolic Abnormalities in Children With Epilepsy and SCN1A Gene Variants.

Three children with drug-refractory epilepsy, normal magnetic resonance image (MRI), and a heterozygous SCN1A variant underwent 2-deoxy-2-[F]fluoro-d-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scanning between age 6 months and 1 year and then at age 3 years 6 months to 5 years 5 months. Regional FDG uptake values were compared to those measured in age- and gender-matched pseudo-controls. At baseline, the brain glucose metabolic pattern in the SCN1A group was similar to that of the pseudo-controls.

Evolution of lobar abnormalities of cerebral glucose metabolism in 41 children with drug-resistant epilepsy.

Objective: We analyzed long-term changes of lobar glucose metabolic abnormalities in relation to clinical seizure variables and development in a large group of children with medically refractory epilepsy.

Methods: Forty-one children (25 males) with drug-resistant epilepsy had a baseline positron emission tomography (PET) scan at a median age of 4.7 years; the scans were repeated after a median of 4.

Marked increase in urinary excretion of apolipoproteins in children with nephrolithiasis associated with hypercalciuria.

Background: Using a proteomic approach, we aimed to identify and compare the urinary excretion of proteins involved in lipid transport and metabolism in children with kidney stones and hypercalciuria (CAL), hypocitraturia (CIT), and normal metabolic work-up (NM), and in healthy controls (HCs). Additionally, we aimed to confirm these results using ELISA, and to examine the relationship between the urinary excretion of selected proteins with demographic, dietary, blood, and urinary parameters.

Methods: Prospective, controlled, pilot study of pooled urine from CAL, CIT, and NM versus age- and gender-matched HCs, using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Use of Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone for Intractable Seizures in a Girl with Precocious Puberty without Hypothalamic Hamartoma.

The use of gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs has been reported in the treatment of gelastic seizures and precocious puberty associated with hypothalamic hamartomas, but not in other seizure types without hypothalamic hamartoma. We describe a 7.5 year-old girl whose seizures subsided after gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog implant, administered for precocious puberty.