Interobserver Agreement in the Assessment of Clinical Findings in Children with Headaches

Stratification of risk for emergent intracranial abnormalities in children with headaches: a Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) study protocol

INTRODUCTION

Headache is a common chief complaint of children presenting to emergency departments (EDs). Approximately 0.5%-1% will have emergent intracranial abnormalities (EIAs) such as brain tumours or strokes. However, more than one-third undergo emergent neuroimaging in the ED, resulting in a large number of children unnecessarily exposed to radiation. The overuse of neuroimaging in children with headaches in the ED is driven by clinician concern for life-threatening EIAs and lack of clarity regarding which clinical characteristics accurately identify children with EIAs. The study objective is to derive and internally validate a stratification model that accurately identifies the risk of EIA in children with headaches based on clinically sensible and reliable variables.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

Prospective cohort study of 28 000 children with headaches presenting to any of 18 EDs in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN). We include children aged 2-17 years with a chief complaint of headache. We exclude children with a clear non-intracranial alternative diagnosis, fever, neuroimaging within previous year, neurological or developmental condition such that patient history or physical examination may be unreliable, Glasgow Coma Scale score<14, intoxication, known pregnancy, history of intracranial surgery, known structural abnormality of the brain, pre-existing condition predisposing to an intracranial abnormality or intracranial hypertension, head injury within 14 days or not speaking English or Spanish. Clinicians complete a standardised history and physical examination of all eligible patients. Primary outcome is the presence of an EIA as determined by neuroimaging or clinical follow-up. We will use binary recursive partitioning and multiple regression analyses to create and internally validate the risk stratification model.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

Ethics approval was obtained for all participating sites from the University of Utah single Institutional Review Board. A waiver of informed consent was granted for collection of ED data. Verbal consent is obtained for follow-up contact. Results will be disseminated through international conferences, peer-reviewed publications, and open-access materials.

Frequency of Bacteremia and Urinary Tract Infection in Pediatric Renal Transplant Recipients

BACKGROUND

Our primary goal was to determine the frequency of bacteremia and urinary tract infections (UTI) in pediatric renal transplant recipients presenting with suspected infection within 2 years of transplant and to identify clinical and laboratory factors associated with bacteremia.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study for all pediatric ( < 18 years old) renal transplant recipients seen at 3 large children's hospitals from 2011 to 2018 for suspected infection within 2 years of transplant date, defined as pyrexia ( > 38°C) or a blood culture being ordered. Patients with primary immunodeficiencies, nontransplant immunosuppression, intestinal failure, and patients who had moved out of the local area were excluded. The primary outcome was bacteremia or UTI; secondary outcomes included pneumonia, bacterial or fungal meningitis, respiratory viral infections, and antibiotic resistance. The unit of analysis was the visit.

RESULTS

One hundred fifteen children had 267 visits for infection evaluation within 2 years of transplant. Bacteremia (with or without UTI) was diagnosed in 9/213 (4.2%) and UTIs in 63/189 (33.3%). Tachycardia and hypotension were present in 66.7% and 0% of visits with documented bacteremia, respectively. White blood cell (12,700 cells/mm 3 vs. 10,900 cells/mm 3 ; P = 0.43) and absolute neutrophil count (10,700 vs. 8200 cells/mm 3 ; P = 0.24) were no different in bacteremic and nonbacteremic patients. The absolute band count was higher in children with bacteremia (1900 vs. 600 cells/mm 3 ; P = 0.02). Among Gram-negative pathogens, antibiotic resistance was seen to 3rd (14.5%) and 4th (3.6%) generation cephalosporins, 12.7% to semisynthetic penicillins, and 3.6% to carbapenems.

CONCLUSIONS

Bacteremia or UTIs were diagnosed in one-quarter of all pediatric renal transplant recipients presenting with suspected infection within 2 years of transplant. Evaluations were highly variable, with one-third of visits not having urine cultures obtained. No single demographic, clinical or laboratory variable accurately identified patients with bacteremia, although combinations of findings may identify a high-risk population.

Diagnostic accuracy of an artificial intelligence online engine in migraine: A multi‐center study

Objective

This study assesses the concordance in migraine diagnosis between an online, self‐administered, Computer‐based, Diagnostic Engine (CDE) and semi‐structured interview (SSI) by a headache specialist, both using International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition (ICHD‐3) criteria.

Background

Delay in accurate diagnosis is a major barrier to headache care. Accurate computer‐based algorithms may help reduce the need for SSI‐based encounters to arrive at correct ICHD‐3 diagnosis.

Methods

Between March 2018 and August 2019, adult participants were recruited from three academic headache centers and the community via advertising to our cross‐sectional study. Participants completed two evaluations: phone interview conducted by headache specialists using the SSI and a web‐based expert questionnaire and analytics, CDE. Participants were randomly assigned to either the SSI followed by the web‐based questionnaire or the web‐based questionnaire followed by the SSI. Participants completed protocols a few minutes apart. The concordance in migraine/probable migraine (M/PM) diagnosis between SSI and CDE was measured using Cohen’s kappa statistics. The diagnostic accuracy of CDE was assessed using the SSI as reference standard.

Results

Of the 276 participants consented, 212 completed both SSI and CDE (study completion rate = 77%; median age = 32 years [interquartile range: 28–40], female:male ratio = 3:1). Concordance in M/PM diagnosis between SSI and CDE was: κ = 0.83 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.75–0.91). CDE diagnostic accuracy: sensitivity = 90.1% (118/131), 95% CI: 83.6%–94.6%; specificity = 95.8% (68/71), 95% CI: 88.1%–99.1%. Positive and negative predictive values = 97.0% (95% CI: 91.3%–99.0%) and 86.6% (95% CI: 79.3%–91.5%), respectively, using identified migraine prevalence of 60%. Assuming a general migraine population prevalence of 10%, positive and negative predictive values were 70.3% (95% CI: 43.9%–87.8%) and 98.9% (95% CI: 98.1%–99.3%), respectively.

Conclusion

The SSI and CDE have excellent concordance in diagnosing M/PM. Positive CDE helps rule in M/PM, through high specificity and positive likelihood ratio. A negative CDE helps rule out M/PM through high sensitivity and low negative likelihood ratio. CDE that mimics SSI logic is a valid tool for migraine diagnosis.