Pediatric Chest Ultrasound: A Practical Approach

Chest ultrasonography is an important imaging adjunct for diagnosing and managing disease in children. Compared with CT and MRI, ultrasound is cheaper, portable and provides vascular or flow-related information that cannot otherwise be obtained noninvasively. The spatial and temporal resolution of ultrasound is excellent, particularly for superficial structures. In cases where a suspicious abnormality is found, tissue sampling can be performed percutaneously with US guidance. Ultrasound also excels at demonstrating and characterizing pleural fluid collections. As concerns about radiation exposure increase among laypersons and doctors alike, there is a compelling argument for making ultrasonography the initial imaging study of choice for many thoracic abnormalities in a child. In this review the authors discuss and illustrate the US findings of some of the more common chest complaints in children

Sonographic evaluation of vascular injuries

The purpose of this presentation is to highlight the color Doppler duplex sonographic features of procedure-related and blunt or penetrating trauma-related vascular injuries. Different kinds of vascular complications such as pseudoaneurysms, arteriovenous fistulas, dissection, and thrombosis are discussed. Cases of vascular injuries in the extremities, neck, and abdomen are presented to illustrate the spectrum of sonographic appearances. Color Doppler duplex sonography is valuable in the diagnosis and monitoring of most vessel injuries and in the treatment of pseudoaneurysms. It is useful for flow analysis and for follow-up after treatment. However, because of limitations inherent to sonography, such as bones, air, casts, skin burns, and relatively slow performance of the test, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and angiography are necessary for further evaluation in selected cases. Color Doppler duplex sonography is a widely available, noninvasive, and accurate technique for evaluating vascular injuries and should be the first-line imaging modality in most patients

Elevated IgM levels as a marker for a unique phenotype in patients with Ataxia telangiectasia

Abstract Background Ataxia telangiectasia (AT) is a rare, multi-systemic, genetic disorder. Mutations in the ATM gene cause dysfunction in cell-cycle, apoptosis and V (D) J recombination leading to neurodegeneration, cellular, humoral immunodeficiencies and predisposition to malignancies. Previous studies have suggested that a sub-group of AT patients with elevated IgM levels have a distinct and more severe phenotype. In the current study we aimed to better characterize this group of patients. Methods We performed a retrospective review of 46 patient records, followed from January 1986 to January 2015 at the Israeli National AT Center. Demographic, clinical, radiological, laboratory data was reviewed and compared between AT patients with elevated IgM levels (EIgM) and patients with normal IgM levels (NIgM). Results 15/46(32.6%) patients had significantly elevated IgM levels. This group had a unique phenotype characterized mainly by increased risk of infection and early mortality. Colonization of lower respiratory tract with Mycobacterium gordonae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa as well as viral skin infections were more frequent in EIgM patients. Patients with NIgM had a significantly longer survival as compared to patients with EIgM but had an increased incidence of fatty liver or cirrhosis. T-cell recombination excision circles and kappa-deleting element recombination circle levels were significantly lower in the EIgM group, suggesting an abnormal class switching in this group. Conclusions EIgM in AT patients are indicative of a more severe phenotype that probably results from a specific immune dysfunction. EIgM in AT should be considered a unique AT phenotype that may require different management

Additional file 1: of Elevated IgM levels as a marker for a unique phenotype in patients with Ataxia telangiectasia

Table S1. The reference range of immunoglobulin M (IgM) based on age*. (DOCX 13 kb