Indications of Collecting Blood Culture and Necessity of Educations [Kan Kulturu Alma Nedenleri ve Egitimin Gerekliligi]

Blood culture is the most usefull test for the diagnosis of bacteremia and infectious diseases either it provides optimising the treatment to microorganism. For the treatment and management of bacteremia in child patients group, it is obligated to be more carefull. Therefore, blood culture is used more often in child patients group. Although, collecting blood culture without indication results cost increase due to unnecessary testing and treatments. This study is performed by investigating the results of blood cultures obtained from the patients that are hospitalized at Diskapi Childrens Hospital in 2007 and 2008. The practitioners have been educated for blood culture obtaining techniques and indications. Number of blood culture testing and changes in indications are analysed at all departments seperately and also whole of the hospital. Blood culture collecting rates were 26.2% before and 21.9% after educations. After educations, despite increase for bacteremia related reasons, collecting blood cultures for bacteremia unrelated reasons such as indirect hyperbilirubinemia, acute bronchiolitis, acute gastroenteritis, routine procedure was decreased. After educations, number of blood culture testing was decreased. It is also observed that blood cultures are more often obtained with indication. Rate of collecting blood culture due to bacteremia independent reasons was decreased. Its seen that routine blood culture collecting is not less and could not be eliminated completely with educations. This study emphasizes the need of routine education programs about blood cultures for medical and financial gains. [Med-Science 2014; 3(4.000): 1571-81

Rare cause of absence of femoral arterial pulse: Bilateral common iliac artery hypoplasia

Congenital anomaly of the iliac arteries is rare, and, given that patients are generally asymptomatic, diagnosis in the newborn period is difficult. Herein is presented the case of a newborn with bilateral hypoplasia of the common iliac arteries, seen on multi-slice computed tomography while investigating the absence of femoral pulse. This anomaly is a rare cause of absence of femoral arterial pulse

Evaluation of Neuroimaging and Electroencephalography Findings in Patients with Status Epilepticus [Status Epileptikus Tanisiyla Izlenen Hastalarin Norogoruntuleme ve EEG Bulgularinin Degerlendirilmesi]

Status epilepticus (SE) is one of the most important pediatric emergent conditions because of major cause of morbidity and mortality. SE should be diagnosed and treated emergently, because it is one of the diseases that may lead to serious sequalea. The aim of the study is to evaluate neuroimaging methods and electroencephalography (EEG) findings of patients with SE, who were under follow up at our hospital. 162 patients (age range, 0-18 years) with SE treated and followed at our hospital between December 2006 and May 2009 were enrolled in our study. Patients age, sex, MRI- CT imaging and EEG findings were recorded from patients files. Patients age and sex were similar. CT was available in 41 patients and MRI was available in 36 patients. CT results of 28 patients were normal, but some pathologies were found in 13 patients. MRI results of 14 patients were normal, but some alterations were detected in 22 patients. EEG was present in 97 patients. EEG results of 49 patients (%50.5) were normal. Consequently, there is no enough data regarding the necessity of the use of neuroimaging methods in case of previous etiology-confirmed SE. However, neuroimaging methods may be considered useful to determinate etiology of SE, response to treatment, and effects on long-term prognosis. Moreover, we can highlight that the early period EEG may be important in determining prognosis. [Med-Science 2015; 4(3.000): 2356-63

Intravenous paracetamol with a lower dose is also effective for the treatment of patent ductus arteriosus in pre-term infants

Introduction: Haemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in pre-term infants. This retrospective study was conducted to investigate the usefulness of lower-dose paracetamol for the treatment of patent ductus arteriosus in pre-term infants. Materials and Methods: A total of 13 pre-term infants who received intravenous paracetamol because of contrindications or side effects to oral ibuprofen were retrospectively enrolled. In the first patient, the dose regimen was 15 mg/kg/dose, every 6 hours. As the patient developed significant elevation in transaminase levels, the dose was decreased to 10 mg/kg/dose, every 8 hours in the following 12 patients. Echocardiographic examination was conducted daily. In case of closure, it was repeated after 2 days and when needed thereafter in terms of reopening. Results: A total of 13 patients received intravenous paracetamol. Median gestational age was 29 weeks ranging from 24 to 31 weeks and birth weight was 950 g ranging from 470 to 1390 g. The median postnatal age at the first intravenous paracetamol dose was 3 days ranging from 2 to 9 days. In 10 of the 13 patients (76.9%), patent ductus arteriosus was closed at the median 2nd day of intravenous paracetamol ranging from 1 to 4 days. When the patient who developed hepatotoxicity was eliminated, the closure rate was found to be 83.3% (10/12). Conclusion: Intravenous paracetamol may be a useful treatment option for the treatment of patent ductus arteriosus in pre-term infants with contrindication to ibuprofen. In our experience, lower-dose paracetamol is effective in closing the patent ductus arteriosus in 83.3% of the cases

Clinical experience with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator in the management of intracardiac and arterial thrombosis in children

Thrombotic events may complicate the clinical course of many pediatric diseases. Drugs for therapeutic thrombolysis include streptokinase, urokinase and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA). There is less experience with recombinant t-PA (rt-PA) in children. We aimed to present our experiences with rt-PA in children with intracardiac or peripheral arterial thrombus. We retrospectively reviewed the children who received rt-PA for thrombus. Twenty-two children (13 boys, 9 girls; age range: 1 day-17 years) with intracardiac (n = 5), prosthetic heart valve (n = 2) and peripheral arterial (n = 15) thrombus were evaluated. Twelve (54%) had congenital heart disease, two (9%) had rheumatic heart disease, three (14%) had leukemia and five (23%) had documented sepsis, prematurity or meconium aspiration syndrome. Ten of the 15 peripheral arterial thromboses were observed following cardiac catheterization. Three of the five intracardiac thrombi were detected in children with leukemia. All children received low-molecular-weight heparin. rt-PA (alteplase) infusion (at a dose of 0.01-0.5 mg/kg per h) was administered for different time periods (3-66 h). Ten of 11 patients with peripheral arterial occlusion and three of five patients with intracardiac thrombus showed full recovery. However, there was no response in two patients with intracardiac thrombus and in two patients with heart valve thrombus. Nose bleeding, melena and decreased serum fibrinogen concentration were observed in seven patients during the rt-PA infusion. All bleedings stopped after cessation of rt-PA infusion, and no blood transfusion was required in any patient We conclude that rt-PA infusion seems effective and well tolerated in children for the treatment of peripheral arterial and intracardiac thrombus. Blood Coagul Fibrinolysis 25:726-730 2014 (C) Wolters Kluwer Health vertical bar Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Cranial imaging findings in neurobrucellosis: results of Istanbul-3 study

Objective Neuroimaging abnormalities in central nervous system (CNS) brucellosis are not well documented. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of imaging abnormalities in neurobrucellosis and to identify factors associated with leptomeningeal and basal enhancement, which frequently results in unfavorable outcomes