Clinical and laboratory parameters associated with febrile seizure recurrence within the first 24 h: a ten-year cohort study

Introduction

We assessed clinical and laboratory parameters associated with early recurrence of febrile seizure in patients presenting at the Emergency Department with a first episode.

Methods

Case series of patients admitted to the emergency department with the first episode of febrile seizure for ten consecutive years. Exclusion criteria were focal features and prolonged duration (>15 min).

Results

We included 693 patients, 284 (41%) female. Median age of 20 (IQR 15-27) months. Fifty-two (8%) patients had a recurrence within 24 h. At univariate analysis, patients with recurrent seizures had higher use of antipyretics (88% vs. 74%, P = 0.03, OR 2.6, 95% CI: 1.1-7.7), higher median maximal body temperature (39.3 °C, IQR 38.9-39.9, vs. 38.9, IQR 38.4-39.3, P < 0.001, OR 2.3, 95% CI: 1.5-2.6) and presented with a lower proportion of respiratory tract infections (54% vs. 70%, P = 0.02) compared to patients without recurrence. A maximal body temperature equal to or higher than 39 °C was associated with a higher recurrence (11% vs. 4%, P < 0.001, OR 2.9, 95% CI: 1.6-5.6). Hyponatremia was not associated with a risk of recurrence. The multivariate analysis confirmed a direct association with body temperature (OR 2.3, 95% CI: 1.5-3.7, P < 0.001), and an inverse association with respiratory tract infections (OR 0.4, 95% CI: 0.2-0.9, P = 0.01), while antipyretic use was not correlated (OR 1.9, 95% CI: 0.8-5.2, P = 0.2).

Conclusions

High body temperature and respiratory tract infections were (directly and inversely) associated with recurrences. Consideration of these conditions might help for anticipating the probability of recurrence.

Risk factors and scores for prediction of coronary artery aneurysms in Kawasaki disease: a European monocentric study

BACKGROUND

Japanese Kawasaki disease (KD) risk scores cannot be adopted in non-Japanese patients. In North American populations a baseline coronary artery Z-score > 2 and the Son score are associated with coronary artery aneurysms (CAAs) at 4 and 8 weeks from disease onset. In European populations, the Kawanet and Kawanet-echo scores are associated with intravenous immunoglobulin resistance. This study aims to evaluate the association between KD risk scores and baseline coronary artery Z-scores with CAAs at one, two, and six months in a European population.

METHODS

Historical cohort study of all the children diagnosed with KD in a tertiary care hospital in Milan, Italy, between 1st January 2015 and 31st May 2021. Univariate and multivariate (adjusting for age and corticosteroid therapy) logistic regression analyses were used to study the association between the risk scores, a baseline Z-score ≥ 2 and ≥ 2.5 with CAAs.

RESULTS

Eighty-nine patients were diagnosed with KD at our Centre, and 12 were excluded based on the exclusion criteria. We included 77 patients, 51 (66%) males, and 26 (34%) females, with a median age at presentation of 27 months (IQR 13-46). A baseline Z-score ≥ 2 was correlated with CAAs at one and two-month follow-ups (odds ratio (OR) 10, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2-72, and OR 18, CI 3-357) but not at six-month follow-up. The Son score showed an association with one and two-month follow-up CAAs (OR 3, CI 1.3-7, and OR 3, CI 1.3-8) but not with a six-month follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with a baseline Z-score ≥ 2 are at higher risk for CAAs in the long term. The Son score should be tested in larger European samples. Further studies should keep the observational periods longer than 8 weeks from KD onset.

Infant and Young Child Feeding practices up to 23 months in Namuno District, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique

BACKGROUND

Inadequate breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices are key determinants of child malnutrition and impact one-third of the under-five mortality rate worldwide. The district of Namuno in Cabo Delgado (Mozambique) has been long registering a high prevalence of acute malnutrition. To date, no data exists about Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices in the area. The current pilot study explores the feeding practices among children aged 0-23 months in Namuno and sets out its main drivers.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was realized between August and September 2019 and drew on questionnaires for mothers/caregivers of children aged 0 to 23 months. We computed IYCF indicators and correlated them with mothers'/caregivers' school attendance, delivery setting, and distance between home and the place where livelihood activities took place (workplace), using univariate and multivariate (age-adjusted) logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

The survey was data derived from a sample of 632 mothers/caregivers. 62% of 0-23-month-old children received colostrum whilst only 31% of 0-5 months babies were on exclusive breastfeeding (EBF). Among 6-23 months old children, 17% consumed foods and beverages from at least five out of eight defined food groups, 31% received a minimum frequency of meals, and 23% had a minimum acceptable diet. Data revealed a positive correlation between early initiation of breastfeeding and delivery in a maternity ward (OR 6.9, CI 3.2-16.1, p-value < 0.001). No difference in the IYCF indicators between female and male babies was detected.

CONCLUSIONS

In the Namuno district, IYCF practices did not fulfill WHO/UNICEF's indicators and recommendations. This suggests that efforts should be focused on EBF-enabling interventions to improve children's dietary consumption patterns.

Adherence to WHO guidelines on severe pneumonia management in children and its impact on outcome: an observational study at Jinka General Hospital in Ethiopia

Introduction

Poor adherence to guidelines during empirical antibiotic prescription in low-income countries could increase antimicrobial resistance without improving outcomes. Revised World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines published in 2014 on childhood (2-59 months) pneumonia re-defined the classification of severe pneumonia and changed the first-line treatment. The adherence to WHO guidelines in southern Ethiopia at the hospital level is unknown. We sought to determine the adherence to WHO guidelines on severe pneumonia first-line treatment in children in an Ethiopian referral hospital and assess the impact of non-adherence on patient outcomes.

Methods

An observational study was conducted on all children (2-59 months) clinically diagnosed with severe pneumonia and admitted to the Pediatric Ward of Jinka Hospital from 1 June 2021 to 31 May 2022. Exclusion criteria included a known HIV infection, ongoing antibiotic treatment before the event not related to acute pneumonia, or any other severe bacterial infection, confirmed or suspected. Adherence to guidelines was defined as first-line treatment with ampicillin or benzylpenicillin and gentamicin at the recommended dose. We compared the patients treated adherently vs. non-adherently. For categorical variables, the chi-square or Fisher's exact test was used, while for continuous variables, the Mann-Whitney U-test was used. Multivariate logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between adherence and demographic and clinical characteristics.

Results

During the observational period, 266 patients were registered as having severe pneumonia with an age between 2 and 59 months. After excluding 114 patients due to missing charts or other exclusion criteria, a total of 152 patients were included in the analysis. Of these, 78 (51%) were girls with a median age of 10 months (IQR 7-14). Overall, 75 (49%) patients received therapy according to the WHO guidelines. Compared to patients treated adherently to the guidelines, patients not treated adherently had similar outcomes [median length of stay of 3 (IQR 3-5) and 4 (IQR 3-6) days], median duration of oxygen therapy of 2 (IQR 1-3) for both the groups, and self-discharge rates of 5% and 6.5%, respectively).

Conclusion

Adherence to the revised WHO guideline was limited and not associated with outcomes. Efforts should focus on reducing the gap between theory and practice.

Development of a score for early identification of children with Kawasaki disease requiring second-line treatment in multi-ethnic populations in Europe: A multicentre retrospective cohort study

Background

Early identification of high-risk patients is essential to stratify treatment algorithms of Kawasaki disease (KD) and to appropriately select patients at risk for complicated disease who would benefit from intensified first-line treatment. Several scores have been developed and validated in Asian populations but have shown low sensitivity in predicting intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) resistance in non-Asian populations. We sought methods to predict the need for secondary treatment after initial IVIG in non-Asian populations.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective, multicenter study including consecutive patients with KD admitted to two tertiary pediatric hospitals in France and Italy from 2005 to 2019. We evaluated the performance of the Kawanet-score and compared it with the performances of initial echocardiography findings, and of a newly proposed score combining the Kawanet-score and initial echocardiography findings. For each score, we assessed the AUC, sensitivity and specificity for predicting the need for second-line treatment.

Findings

We included 363 children with KD, 186 from France and 177 from Italy, of whom 57 (16%) required second-line therapy after the first IVIG dose. The Kawanet score, coronary artery dilation or aneurysm with maximal Z-score ≥2.0 at baseline, and abnormal initial echocardiography had a sensitivity of 43%, 55% and 65% and a specificity of 73%, 78%, 73%, respectively, for predicting the need for second-line treatment. The Kawanet-score was significantly improved by combining it with initial echocardiography findings. The best predictive performance (Sensitivity 76%, Specificity 54%) was obtained by combining the Kawanet-score with abnormal initial echocardiography, defined by the presence of either coronary artery maximal Z-score ≥2.0, pericarditis, myocarditis and/or ventricular dysfunction. This score predicted the need for second-line treatment in European, African/Afro-Caribbean and Asian ethnicity with a sensitivity of 80%, 65% and 100%, respectively, and a specificity of 56%, 51% and 61%, respectively.

Interpretation

Our study proposes a score that we named the Kawanet-echo score, which allows early identification of children with KD who require a second-line treatment in multi-ethnic populations in Europe.

Funding

None.

Epidemiology and antimicrobial susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus in children in a tertiary care pediatric hospital in Milan, Italy, 2017-2021

Background

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is highly prevalent worldwide and can cause severe diseases. MRSA is associated with other antibiotic resistance. COVID-19 pandemic increased antimicrobial resistance in adult patients. Only a few data report the antimicrobial susceptibility of S. aureus in the Italian pediatric population, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We included all the S. aureus positive samples with an available antibiogram isolated from pediatric patients (< 18 years old) in a tertiary care hospital in Milan, Italy, from January 2017 to December 2021. We collected data on demographics, antimicrobial susceptibility, and clinical history. We compared methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) and MRSA strains. We calculated the frequency of isolation by year. The incidence of isolates during 2020 was compared with the average year isolation frequency using the univariate Poisson test. We compared the proportion of MRSA isolates during 2020 to the average proportion of other years with the Chi-squared test.

Results

Our dataset included a total of 255 S. aureus isolated from 226 patients, 120 (53%) males, and 106 (47%) females, with a median age of 3.4 years (IQR 0.8 – 10.5). The mean isolation frequency per year was 51. We observed a significant decrease of isolations during 2020 (p = 0.02), but after adjusting for the total number of hospitalization per year there was no evidence that the incidence changed. Seventy-six (30%) S. aureus were MRSA. Twenty (26%) MRSA vs 23 (13%) MSSA (p = 0.02) were hospital-acquired. MRSA strains showed higher resistance to cotrimoxazole, clindamycin, macrolides, levofloxacin, gentamicin, and tetracyclin than MSSA strains. None of MRSA were resistant to linezolid and vancomycin, one was resistant to daptomycin. The proportion of MRSA did not change during the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall clindamycin resistance was high (17%). Recent antibiotic therapy was related to MRSA infection.

Conclusion

The proportion of MRSA did not change during the COVID-19 pandemic and remained high. Clindamycin should not be used as an empirical MRSA treatment due to its high resistance.

Corrigendum: Disappearance of seasonal respiratory viruses in children under two years old during COVID-19 pandemic: A monocentric retrospective study in Milan, Italy

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fped.2021.721005.].

Multiple Breath Washout for Early Assessment of Pulmonary Complications in Patients With Primary Antibody Deficiencies: An Observational Study in Pediatric Age

BACKGROUND

In primary antibody deficiencies (PADs), pulmonary complications are the main cause of morbidity, despite immunoglobulin substitutive therapy, antibiotic treatment of exacerbations, and respiratory physiotherapy. Current Italian recommendations for surveillance of PADs respiratory complications include an annual assessment of spirometry and execution of chest high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) every 4 years.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the lung clearance index (LCI) as an early marker of lung damage in patients with PADs. LCI is measured by multiple breath washout (MBW), a non-invasive and highly specific test widely used in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF).

METHODS

Pediatric patients with PADs (n = 17, 10 male, 7 female, and age range 5-15 years) underwent baseline assessment of lung involvement with chest HRCT, spirometry, and multiple breath nitrogen washout. Among them, 13 patients were followed up to repeat HRCT after 4 years, while performing pulmonary function tests annually. Their baseline and follow-up LCI and forced expiratory volume at 1 s (FEV1) values were compared, taking HRCT as the gold standard, using logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

Lung clearance index [odds ratio (OR) 2.3 (confidence interval (CI) 0.1-52) at baseline, OR 3.9 (CI 0.2-191) at follow-up] has a stronger discriminating power between altered and normal HRCT rather than FEV1 [OR 0.6 (CI 0.2-2) at baseline, OR 1.6 (CI 0.1-13.6) at follow-up].

CONCLUSION

Within the context of a limited sample size, LCI seems to be more predictive of HRCT alterations than FEV1 and more sensitive than HRCT in detecting non-uniform ventilation in the absence of bronchiectasis. A study of a larger cohort of pediatric patients followed longitudinally in adulthood is needed to challenge these findings.

Is There an Association Between Oxytocin Levels in Plasma and Pregnant Women's Mental Health?

BACKGROUND: Mood and anxiety disorders are prevalent in women during peripartum. AIMS: Purpose of the present article was to study the relationship between oxytocin (OT) plasma levels and affective symptoms in women during the third trimester of pregnancy. METHODS: Thirty-four pregnant women (13 with an affective disorder, 9 with preeclampsia, and 12 controls) were evaluated through the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the State/Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y (STAI-Y), and the Prenatal Attachment Inventory (PAI). A blood sample was collected from all participants, and OT plasma levels have been compared between diagnostic groups. The total sample has been divided into two groups, according to OT median plasma levels, and compared using (a) χ² tests for qualitative variables and (b) a multivariate analysis of covariance for quantitative ones. RESULTS: No statistically significant difference was found among the diagnostic groups in terms of OT plasma levels (F = 0.49, p = .62). Women with lower OT plasma levels, independent from the presence of preeclampsia or an affective disorder, showed worse EPDS and STAI-S total scores than individuals with higher hormone levels (F = 5.93, p = .02 and F = 7.57, p = .01, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: OT may play a role in the etiology of anxious/depressive symptoms during perinatal period independent from a medical or psychiatric diagnosis. This result has a clear effect on the quality of the relationship of patients with mental health professionals, including nurses, and higher levels of this hormone, in the light of its anxiolytic and antidepressive effect, may make easier medical and nursing procedures.

Frequency of asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2 among children and adults after school reopening

Background

Children often develop an asymptomatic form of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but it is debated if children are at higher risk than adults to be asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2, especially during the school reopening. The main aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic carriers in children and adults during the reopening of the schools in Milan, Italy.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study at the pediatric and adult Emergency Department (ED) of the Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico (Milan) between October 1 and 31, 2020, i.e. 3 weeks after the reopening of schools. Patients admitted to the ED short stay observation and without any sign or symptom consistent with a SARS-CoV-2 were eligible. These patients underwent a nasopharyngeal swab specimen for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. The odds ratio and its 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated to assess the risk of asymptomatically carrying the SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adults.

Results

A total of 69 (27 females, median age 8.7 years) children and 251 (107 females, median age 71 years) adults were enrolled. Pediatric and adult subjects tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 with a similar frequency (1/69 [1.4%] vs 4/251 [1.6%]). Children had an odds ratio to be a carrier of 0.91 (CI 0.02– 9.38) compared to adults.

Conclusions

The frequency of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers was similar among children and adults. Considering the emerging diffusion of new SARS-CoV-2 variants, the asymptomatic spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection among children and adults should be monitored.

Disappearance of Seasonal Respiratory Viruses in Children Under Two Years Old During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Monocentric Retrospective Study in Milan, Italy

Background: The containment measures adopted during COVID-19 pandemic have influenced the epidemiology of other respiratory viruses. Aim: We analyzed the modification of the incidence and etiology of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in young children during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Case series of all children under 2 years old hospitalized at a tertiary care Hospital in the Center of Milan, Italy diagnosed with LRTIs in three consecutive winter seasons (from the 1st of November to the last day of February in 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021). We compared the number of hospitalizations and viral detections in the 2020/2021 with the average of 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 (pre-COVID-19) using the Poisson distribution. Results: we enrolled 178 patients (66 from 2018/2019, 96 from 2019/2020, 16 from 2020/2021) 94 males (53%) and 84 females (47%), with a median (IQR) age of 5 (2-13) months. The number of hospitalizations during the 2020/2021 season was 80% lower than the average of the pre-COVID-19 seasons (16 vs. 81, p<0.001). Overall, 171 (96%) patient's nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA) detected at least one virus (110, 64%, single-detection, 61, 36%, co-detections). In 2020/2021 we observed the disappearance of Respiratory Syncytial virus (0 vs. 54, p < 0.001), Influenza virus (0 vs. 6.5, p = 0.002), Metapneumovirus (0 vs. 8, p < 0.001), Parainfluenza viruses (0 vs. 3.5, p = 0.03) and a significant reduction of Adenovirus (2 vs. 7, p = 0.03), Bocavirus (2 vs. 7.5, p = 0.02) and Enterovirus (1 vs. 5, p = 0.04). No significant difference was found for Rhinoviruses (14 cases vs. 17, p = 0.2), other Coronaviruses (0 vs. 2, p = 0.1), and Cytomegalovirus (1 vs. 1, p = 0.7). Conclusions: We observed a striking reduction in hospitalizations due to LRTIs and a modification of the etiology, with enveloped viruses mainly affected.