The Potential of Evidence-Based Clinical Intake Tools to Discover or Ground Prevalence of Symptoms Using Real-Life Digital Health Encounters: Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Evidence-based clinical intake tools (EBCITs) are structured assessment tools used to gather information about patients and help health care providers make informed decisions. The growing demand for personalized medicine, along with the big data revolution, has rendered EBCITs a promising solution. EBCITs have the potential to provide comprehensive and individualized assessments of symptoms, enabling accurate diagnosis, while contributing to the grounding of medical care.

Protective Characteristics of Human Breast Milk on Early Childhood Otitis Media: A Narrative Review.

Human breast milk (HBM) contains a complex and dynamically changing variety of factors that contribute to the infant's developing immune system's ability to fight upper respiratory tract infections, including otitis media (OM). We sought to summarize the current evidence on the protective characteristics of HBM, through direct or donated feeding, toward early childhood OM. For this narrative review, we performed a literature search on OM in the context of HBM feeding in the PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar databases, between January 1, 2008, and July 1, 2023.

Topical and oral steroids for otitis media with effusion (OME) in children.

Background: Otitis media with effusion (OME) is an accumulation of fluid in the middle ear cavity, common amongst young children. The fluid may cause hearing loss. Although most episodes of OME in children resolve spontaneously within a few months, when persistent it may lead to behavioural problems and a delay in expressive language skills.

Antibiotics for otitis media with effusion (OME) in children.

Background: Otitis media with effusion (OME) is an accumulation of fluid in the middle ear cavity, common amongst young children. The fluid may cause hearing loss. When persistent, it may lead to developmental delay, social difficulty and poor quality of life.

Adenoidectomy for otitis media with effusion (OME) in children.

Background: Otitis media with effusion (OME) is an accumulation of fluid in the middle ear cavity, common amongst young children. The fluid may cause hearing loss. When persistent, it may lead to developmental delay, social difficulty and poor quality of life.

Autoinflation for otitis media with effusion (OME) in children.

Background: Otitis media with effusion (OME) is an accumulation of fluid in the middle ear cavity, common amongst young children. The fluid may cause hearing loss. When persistent, it may lead to behavioural problems and a delay in expressive language skills.

Video head impulse test for the assessment of vestibular function in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss without vertigo.

Objective: Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss may be accompanied by dizziness without true vertigo. This study used the video head impulse test to evaluate vestibular function in idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss patients who described experiencing dizziness and not true vertigo.

Methods: A prospective study was conducted of 30 consecutive patients diagnosed with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss with dizziness without true vertigo.

Spontaneous Pneumomediastinum Resulting From Passionate Cheering at a Soccer Match.

Spontaneous pneumomediastinum is a rare and self-limiting clinical entity, often triggered by activities causing acute changes in intrathoracic pressure such as childbirth, strenuous exercise, vomiting, and coughing. We present a case of a young male soldier who developed spontaneous pneumothorax following persistent yelling while attending a soccer match. Spontaneous pneumomediastinum may be preceded by a variety of strenuous activities, and clinicians should be aware of this entity when performing the evaluation of patients with nonspecific symptoms such as chest pain and dyspnea.

Otitis Media Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The global coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the prevalence and management of many pediatric infectious diseases, including acute otitis media (AOM). Coronaviruses are a group of RNA viruses that cause respiratory tract infections in humans. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, coronavirus serotypes OC43, 229E, HKU1, and NL63 were infrequently detected in middle ear fluid (MEF) specimens and nasopharyngeal aspirates in children with AOM during the 1990s and 2000s and were associated with a mild course of the disease.

Treatment failure in pediatric acute otitis media: How do you define?

Introduction: Reaching the point of treatment failure in the management of pediatric acute otitis media (AOM) is decision-changing, and is often associated with switching to a broader coverage antibiotic with/without middle ear surgical drainage. Yet, still there is no consensus on the definition of what is treatment failure, which may lead to confusion for clinical decision-making purposes. We sought to review the heterogeneity of treatment failure definitions in AOM.

Antibiotic prescription policy for acute otitis media: do we follow the guidelines?

Background: Acute otitis media (AOM) is a common cause for antibiotic prescription. Most guidelines endorse abstaining from immediate antibiotic treatment ('watchful waiting', WW) in mild-moderate episodes. We studied adherence rates to the latest AOM guidelines (2013), in terms of antibiotic type and prescription options.

Pneumococcal Conjugated Vaccines Decreased Acute Otitis Media Burden: A Population-Based Study in Israel.

Objective: To study time trends in all-cause acute otitis media (AOM) burden by calculating incidence rates of AOM episodes and recurrent acute otitis media (rAOM) cases in highly immunized pediatric population during the pre- and post-pneumococcal conjugated vaccine (PCV) years.

Study Design: In this population-based study, AOM episodes and rAOM cases were identified in Clalit Health Services-insured Israeli children aged 0-10 years between 2005 and 2018 by using a data-sharing platform. Because a near-sequential implementation of PCV-7/PCV-13 occurred within a 1-year period (2009/2010), we compared AOM visits before (2005-July 2009) and after (August 2009-2018) the introduction of PCVs.

Biofilm distribution on tympanostomy tubes: An ex vivo descriptive study.

Background: Tympanostomy tube (TT) insertion is a common procedure in children with otitis media with effusion. Post-TT otorrhea (PTTO) is a frequent post-operative complication. Biofilms are involved in chronic PTTO cases.

Tonsillar and Adenoid Noncaseating, Epithelioid Granulomas in a Young Girl.

Waldeyer's lymphatic ring granulomas in children are infrequent, and may represent an underlying systemic disease, often nondiagnosed before adenotonsillectomy is performed. The authors report on a 5-year-old otherwise healthy girl presented with remarkable tonsillar asymmetry as well as adenoid hypertrophy, with no systemic signs or complaints. Adenotonsillectomy was performed to rule out malignancy.

Emerging Technologies for the Diagnosis of Otitis Media.

Objective: To review new experimental techniques for the diagnosis of otitis media (OM).

Data Sources: Literature search in English in the following databases: MEDLINE (via PubMed), Ovid Medline, Google Scholar, and Clinical Evidence (BMJ Publishing) between January 1, 2005, and April 30, 2018. Subsequently, articles were reviewed and included only if relevant.

30-Day Morbidity and Mortality Rates in Elderly Subjects Following Surgical Tracheostomy.

Background: Tracheostomy is considered to be effective in the respiratory support of mechanically ventilated patients. We studied a single-center experience of surgical tracheostomy in mechanically ventilated patients to describe the demographics, risk factors, and outcomes of early (≤ 14 d after ventilation) versus late surgical tracheostomy (≥ 15 d after ventilation).

Methods: In this retrospective study, we collected demographic data, medical history, timing of surgical tracheostomy in relation to ventilation day, blood test results, preoperative surgical assessment (subjective impression of neck length, difficulty in neck extension, presence of a goiter), intraoperative complications (bleeding > 100 mL, difficulties in cannula insertion), and postoperative morbidities (bleeding, wound infection, fever, inadvertent de-cannulation, and 30-d postoperative mortality rate) of subjects who underwent surgical tracheostomy in a secondary medical center during 2010-2015.

Reframing undergraduate medical education in global health: Rationale and key principles from the Bellagio Global Health Education Initiative.

Global health education (GHE) continues to be a growing initiative in many medical schools across the world. This focus is no longer limited to participants from high-income countries and has expanded to institutions and students from low- and middle-income settings. With this shift has come a need to develop meaningful curricula through engagement between educators and learners who represent the sending institutions and the diverse settings in which GHE takes place.

The contribution of socio-economic position to the excesses of violence and intimate partner violence among aboriginal versus non-Aboriginal Women in Canada.

Objective: To examine the contribution of socio-economic position (SEP) in explaining the excess of any abuse and intimate partner violence (IPV) among Aboriginal versus non-Aboriginal women in Canada. This comparison has not been studied before.

Methods: We conducted logistic regression analysis, using nationwide data from a weighted sample of 57,318 Canadian-born mothers of singletons who participated in the Canadian Maternity Experiences Survey 2006-7.

Renal pelvis flap--guide for ureteral spatulation and handling during dismembered pyeloplasty.

Introduction: To present a technical modification of the classic dismembered pyeloplasty technique. We have implemented it in 112 pyeloplasties performed during the past 15 years.

Technical Considerations: The technical modification is based on a renal pelvis flap kept undetached from the ureteropelvic junction, and consequently from the ureter, until near completion of the new ureteropelvic anastomosis.

Deletion of 8.5 Mb, including the FMR1 gene, in a male with the fragile X syndrome phenotype and overgrowth.

A four-year-old boy with severe psychomotor retardation, facial appearance consistent with the fragile X syndrome, hypotonia, and overgrowth was found to have a deletion including the fragile X gene (FMR1). The breakpoints of the deletion were established between CDR1 and sWXD2905 (approximately 200 kb apart) at Xq27.1 (centromeric) and between DXS8318 (612-1078L) and DXS7847 (576-291L) (approximately 250 kb apart) at Xq28, about 500 kb telomeric to the FMR1 gene.

Marked increase in plasma high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol after prolonged fasting during Ramadan.

We evaluated the effect of the Ramadan fasting on plasma lipids and lipoproteins in normal individuals. Twenty-four healthy subjects were studied before the end of the Ramadan month (Ram) and for 1 mo thereafter. Plasma total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides, low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and very-low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C) did not change.