Working Towards an Appropriate Use of Ibuprofen in Children: An Evidence-Based Appraisal.

Ibuprofen is the most widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) for the treatment of inflammation, mild-to-moderate pain and fever in children, and is the only NSAID approved for use in children aged ≥3 months. Its efficacy and safety profile have led to its increasing use in paediatric care, even without medical prescription. However, an increase of suspected adverse reactions to ibuprofen has been noted in concomitance with the raised, often medically unsupervised, consumption of the drug.

Recent Advances in Pediatric Use of Oral Paracetamol in Fever and Pain Management.

Paracetamol is a common analgesic and antipyretic drug for management of fever and mild-to-moderate pain in infants and children, and it is considered as first-line therapy for the treatment of both according to international guidelines and recommendations. The mechanism of action of paracetamol is complex and multifactorial, and several aspects of the pharmacology impact its clinical use, especially in the selection of the correct analgesic and antipyretic dose. A systematic literature search was performed by following procedures for transparent reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Pharmacological modulation of blood-brain barrier increases permeability of doxorubicin into the rat brain.

Our group recently demonstrated in a rat model that pretreatment with morphine facilitates doxorubicin delivery to the brain in the absence of signs of increased acute systemic toxicity. Morphine and other drugs such as dexamethasone or ondansetron seem to inhibit MDR proteins localized on blood-brain barrier, neurons and glial cells increasing the access of doxorubicin to the brain by efflux transporters competition. We explored the feasibility of active modification of the blood-brain barrier protection, by using morphine dexamethasone or ondansetron pretreatment, to allow doxorubicin accumulation into the brain in a rodent model.

Interferon-γ release assays for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Data regarding the use of interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) for tuberculosis diagnosis are accumulating. We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane and performed pooled estimates of sensitivity and specificity of QuantiFERON-TB Gold In Tube (QFT-G-IT) and T-SPOT.TB compared to tuberculin skin test (TST).