Mumps outbreak in Incheon, Korea, 2009 / 소아과

PURPOSE: Recently, we have noticed an increase in the number of patients with mumps in Incheon, Korea. The aim of this study is to estimate the regional trend in mumps incidence and to evaluate the factors related to the recent increase. METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of 66 patients with mumps who had been admitted to Incheon St. Mary's Hospital from July 1999 to June 2009. We compared the differences in records between "outbreak, 2009" and "nonoutbreak, 2000-2008." RESULTS: Of the 66 patients, 35 (53%) were admitted in 2009, and 31 (47%) were admitted between 2000 and 2008. Most of the patients admitted during the outbreak were over 15 years of age (80.0%), were born before 1993 (77.1%), and had received a single dose of mumps vaccine (62.9%). There were no significant differences in contact history, present address, clinical manifestations, and complications, except for orchitis, between the two groups. CONCLUSION: There was a sharp increase in the number of inpatients with mumps who were born before 1993 and who were over 15 years of age. We recommend that a booster vaccination be considered for adolescents and young adults born before 1993 who are susceptible to mumps infection due to their reduced opportunities for receiving two doses of mumps vaccine.

A Case of Deep Vein Thrombosis Following Iron Deficiency Anemia in Cerebral Palsy / 대한혈액학회지

Thrombotic complications in iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) are rare. We now report a case of deep vein thrombosis following iron deficiency anemia in cerebral palsy. A 20 year old male was admitted to our hospital? due to a pale appearance. He was diagnosed as having spastic cerebral palsy. On admission, a complete blood cell count showed IDA with thrombocytosis. Prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time were within the normal range. We observed swelling and edema on the left thigh and ankle without tenderness. We performed Doppler sonography and computed tomography. Thrombi were located in the left common iliac vein and left superficial femoral vein with elevated D-dimer levels. We started heparin therapy. We excluded intravascular hemolysis or a hypercoagulable state when we found that Ham's test, anti-cardiolipin antibody, and lupus anticoagulant were negative. The patient died due to hypoxemia and cardiac failure despite ventilator care with anti-coagulant therapy.

Performance effectiveness of pediatric index of mortality 2 (PIM2) and pediatricrisk of mortality III (PRISM III) in pediatric patients with intensive care in single institution: Retrospective study / 소아과

PURPOSE: To investigate the discriminative ability of pediatric index of mortality 2 (PIM2 ) and pediatric risk of mortality III (PRISM III) in predicting mortality in children admitted into the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed variables of PIM2 and PRISM III based on medical records with children cared for in a single hospital ICU from January 2003 to December 2007. Exclusions were children who died within 2 h of admission into ICU or hopeless discharge. We used Students t test and ANOVA for general characteristics and for correlation between survivors and non-survivors for variables of PIM2 and PRISM III. In addition, we performed multiple logistic regression analysis for Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit, receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) for discrimination, and calculated standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for estimation of prediction. RESULTS: We collected 193 medical records but analyzed 190 events because three children died within 2 h of ICU admission. The variables of PIM2 correlated with survival, except for the presence of post-procedure and low risk. In PRISM III, there was a significant correlation for cardiovascular/neurologic signs, arterial blood gas analysis but not for biochemical and hematologic data. Discriminatory performance by ROC showed an area under the curve 0.858 (95% confidence interval; 0.779-0.938) for PIM2, 0.798 (95% CI; 0.686-0.891) for PRISM III, respectively. Further, SMR was calculated approximately as 1 for the 2 systems, and multiple logistic regression analysis showed chi-square(13)=14.986, P=0.308 for PIM2, chi-square(13)=12.899, P=0.456 for PRISM III in Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit. However, PIM2 was significant for PRISM III in the likelihood ratio test chi-square(4)=55.3, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: We identified two acceptable scoring systems (PRISM III, PIM2 ) for the prediction of mortality in children admitted into the ICU. PIM2 was more accurate and had a better fit than PRISM III on the model tested.

The Clinical Manifestations and the Effect on Prognosis of Seizures during Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treatment in Children

PURPOSE: This study was designed to assess the clinical manifestations and the effect on prognosis of seizures in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia(ALL). METHODS: The study group consisted of 20 patients(10 males and 10 females) who experienced seizures out of the 198 pediatric ALL patients(117 males and 81 females) who were diagnosed and treated at the Department of Pediatrics, St. Mary's Hospital, the Catholic University of Korea. RESULTS: The overall incidence of seizure developing after the diagnosis of ALL was 10.1% and in 11 patients(5.6%), seizure recurred one or more times. An average of 6.5+/-3.6 months(range 0-42 months) elapsed between the beginning of treatment and the new onset of seizures. In 13 patients(65%), the first seizure occurred during the induction or re-induction chemotherapy phase. Seizure type was partial seizure in 11 patients(55%), and generalized seizure in 9 patients(45%). In 15 patients(88.2%), brain imaging study showed abnormal findings and in 18 patients(90%), EEG revealed abnormal findings. 11 patients were diagnosed with epilepsy and were treated with long-term anticonvulsants. In these patients, 4 patients(36.4%) had no seizure recurrence, but 2 patients(18.2%) showed no response to anticonvulsants. The 5-year survival rate of the patients experiencing seizures was 47%, while the rate was 78% for those did not experience seizures (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Seizures in pediatric patients with ALL was closely related to the 5-year survival rate. Therefore, these patients require early careful observation, evaluation and intensive care. Also, further studies such as ways to diminish the side effects of antileukemic agents are necessary to reduce the risk of seizure.