Impact of Weather on Prevalence of Febrile Seizures in Children / 대한소아신경학회지

PURPOSE: Febrile seizure (FS) is the most common type of seizure in children between 6 months to 5 years of age. A family history of febrile seizures can increase the risk a child will have a FS. Yet, prevalence of FS regarding external environment has not been clearly proved. This study attempts to determine the association between prevalence of FS and weather. METHODS: This study included medical records from the Korea National Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. Data were collected from 29,240 children, born after 2004, diagnosed with FS who were admitted to one of the hospitals in Seoul, Korea, between January 2009 and December 2013. During the corresponding time period, data from the Korea Meteorological Administration on daily monitoring of four meteorological factors (sea-level pressure, amount of precipitation, humidity and temperature) were collected. The relationships of FS prevalence and each meteorological factor will be designed using Poisson generalized additive model (GAM). Also, the contributory effect of viral infections on FS prevalence and weather will be discussed. RESULTS: The amount of precipitation was divided into two groups for comparison: one with less than 5 mm and the other with equal to or more than 5 mm. As a result of Poisson GAM, higher prevalence of FS showed a correlation with smaller amount of precipitation. Smoothing function was used to classify the relationships between three variables (sea-level pressure, humidity, and temperature) and prevalence of FS. FS prevalence was correlated with lower sea-level pressure and lower humidity. FS prevalence was high in two temperature ranges (-7 to -1℃ and 18–21℃). CONCLUSION: Low sea-level pressure, small amount of precipitation, and low relative air humidity may increase FS prevalence risk.

Usefulness of the Korean Developmental Screening Test for infants and children for the evaluation of developmental delay in Korean infants and children: a single-center study / 소아과

PURPOSE: To evaluate the usefulness of the Korean Developmental Screening Test (K-DST) for infants and children for developmental delay assessment. METHODS: This study was based on retrospective studies of the results of the K-DST, Preschool Receptive-Expressive Language Scale (PRES), Sequenced Language Scale for Infants (SELSI), Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT), electroencephalography, magnetic resonance imaging, and extensive tests conducted in 209 of 1,403 patients, of whom 758 underwent the K-DST at the Korea University Guro Hospital between January 2015 and December 2016 and 645 were referred from local clinics between January 2015 and June 2016. RESULTS: Based on the K-DST results, the male children significantly more frequently required further or follow-up examination than the female children in most test sections, except for gross motor. The male children had notably lower mean scores than the female children. The PRES/SELSI results showed that when more further or follow-up evaluations were required in the K-DST communication section, significantly more problems in language delay or disorder emerged. When further or follow-up evaluation was required in the cognitive section in the CARS/M-CHAT, the possibility of autism increased significantly. A child tended to score low in the CARS test and show autism when further or follow-up evaluation was recommended in the K-DST. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated the usefulness of the K-DST as a screening test early in the development of infants and children in Korea. Data of normal control groups should be examined to determine the accuracy of this investigation.

Clinical features of respiratory adenovirus infections in pediatric inpatients in a single medical center

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to identify the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of respiratory adenovirus infections in children, and to investigate the difference in the clinical features between single adenovirus infection and coinfection with adenovirus and other respiratory viruses. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed in 470 children hospitalized with respiratory adenovirus infections in Gwangmyeong Sungae Hospital between January 2013 and December 2013. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 46.2 months and the peak incidence was in the 12- to 24-month age group. The mean duration of hospitalization and fever were 4.5+/-1.1 and 4.5+/-9.2 days, respectively. Seasonally it had occurred throughout the year, but showed the highest prevalence in August and high prevalence in July, September, and October. The frequency of viral coinfection with other respiratory viruses was 39.6%. The age was significantly younger in coinfection group than in the single adenovirus infection group (P<0.001). The prevalence rates of bronchiolitis (P<0.001) and pneumonia (P=0.042) were significantly higher in the respiratory syncytial virus coinfection group. The coinfection rate was significantly higher in children aged less than 2 years (P<0.001), and the prevalence rates of bronchiolitis (P<0.001) and pneumonia (P<0.001) were also higher in the group aged less than 2 years than other age groups. CONCLUSION: Adenovirus is an important viral agent in hospitalized children with acute respiratory tract infection. Lower respiratory tract infections, such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia, and coinfection with other respiratory viruses were more frequently occurred in patients under 2 years of age. Further studies are needed to clarify whether coinfection with other respiratory viruses would increase the rate of lower respiratory tract infections in patients with respiratory adenoviral infections.