Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Children: A Forgotten Disease?

Even today, tuberculosis in childhood is a disease that is often undiagnosed and undertreated. In the absence of therapy with antituberculosis drugs, children in the first years of life have a high degree of severe forms and mortality. In these children, symptoms are often not very specific and can easily be confused with other diseases of bacterial, viral or fungal etiology, making diagnosis more difficult.

Management of Childhood-onset Craniopharyngioma in Italy: A Multicenter, 7-Year Follow-up Study of 145 Patients.

Context: Nationwide data on children diagnosed with craniopharyngioma (CP) are not available in Italy.

Objective: This work aimed to identify patients' characteristics, type of surgical approach, complications and recurrences, number of pituitary deficits, and number of patients starting growth hormone (GH) treatment.

Methods: A retrospective multicenter collection took place of 145 patients aged 0 to 18 years who underwent surgery for CP between 2000 and 2018, and followed up in 17 Italian centers of pediatric endocrinology.

Ecthyma Gangrenosum in Children With Cancer: Diagnosis at a Glance: A Retrospective Study From the Infection Working Group of Italian Pediatric Hematology Oncology Association.

Background: To depict ecthyma gangrenosum (EG) clinical presentation and evolution in a large multicenter pediatric retrospective collection of children with malignancies or bone marrow failure syndromes, to facilitate early diagnosis.

Methods: EG episodes diagnosed in the period 2009-2019 were identified by a retrospective review of clinical charts at centers belonging to the Italian Pediatric Hematology Oncology Association.

Results: Thirty-eight cases of EG occurring in children (male/female 16/22; median age 5.

Prenatal screening diagnosis and management in the era of coronavirus: the Sardinian experience.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a new coronavirus, was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China and spread rapidly, affecting many other countries. The disease is now referred to as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).The Italian government declared a state of emergency on 31st January 2020 and on 11th March World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic.

The decline of amniocentesis and the increase of chorionic villus sampling in modern perinatal medicine.

Objective The aims of this study were to determine the rate of change by type of diagnosis by transabdominal chorionic villus sampling (TA-CVS) vs. amniocentesis for aneuploidy and to describe a successful and intensive international training program for TA-CVS in ongoing pregnancies. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all deliveries from 2010 to 2018 in Sardinia.

Two novel truncating variants of the AAAS gene causative of the triple A syndrome.

Purpose: The triple A syndrome (AAAS) is an inherited condition associated with mutations in the AAAS gene, which encodes a protein of 546 amino acids known as ALADIN (alacrima achalasia adrenal insufficiency neurologic disorder) whose function is not well understood. This protein belongs to the WD-repeat family of regulatory proteins and is located in the nuclear pore complexes. Only a few cohorts of AAAS patients have been reported and fully characterized.

Late mortality and causes of death among 5-year survivors of childhood cancer diagnosed in the period 1960-1999 and registered in the Italian Off-Therapy Registry.

Introduction: Advances in paediatric oncology led to the increase in long-term survival, revealing the burden of therapy-related long-term side effects. We evaluated overall and cause-specific mortality in a large cohort of Italian childhood cancer survivors (CCSs) and adolescent cancer survivors identified through the off-therapy registry.

Materials And Methods: CCSs alive 5 years after cancer diagnosis occurring between 1960 and 1999 were eligible; the last follow-up was between 2011 and 2014.

Next-Generation Sequencing Identifies Different Genetic Defects in 2 Patients with Primary Adrenal Insufficiency and Gonadotropin-Independent Precocious Puberty.

Background: The development of gonadotropin-independent (peripheral) precocious puberty in male children with primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) is consistent with a defect in the genes encoding for the enzymes involved in steroid hormone biosynthesis.

Methods: Two young boys presented with peripheral precocious puberty followed by PAI. In both patients, the analysis of CYP21A2 gene encoding 21-hydroxylase was normal.

Adherence in children with growth hormone deficiency treated with r-hGH and the easypod™ device.

Purpose: Poor adherence to recombinant human growth hormone (r-hGH) therapy is associated with reduced growth velocity in children with growth hormone deficiency (GHD). This twelve-month observational study was to assess adherence in r-hGH patients treated with the easypod, an electronic, fully automated injection device designed to track the time, date and dose administered.

Methods: Ninety-seven prepubertal patients receiving r-hGH therapy were included in the study from ten Italian clinical sites and 88 completed the study.