Erythema Nodosum in Children: A Narrative Review and a Practical Approach.

Erythema nodosum (EN) is the most frequent form of panniculitis in children. We performed a literature review analyzing studies on pediatric EN published from 1990 to February 2022. EN is rare in pediatric age. It can be primary/idiopathic in 23-55% cases, or secondary in 47-77% cases. Secondary EN is related to a wide variety of conditions including infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, malignancy, drugs, vaccinations, and pregnancy. The diagnosis of EN is clinical, based on the acute appearance of painful and red nodules localized to lower limbs, bilaterally distributed. If EN is diagnosed, basic work-up should include inflammatory markers, serum aminotransferases, lactate dehydrogenase, creatinine, protein electrophoresis, immunoglobulins, testing for streptococcal infection, and a tuberculin skin test. Based on the medical history and associated manifestations, further laboratory and radiological exams should be performed. The prognosis of EN is excellent, with spontaneous resolution in most patients within 2-6 weeks. Treatment, if needed, is addressed to the underlying condition. Despite being a rare manifestation in children, EN can be isolated or the first manifestation of a systemic or infectious condition. EN diagnosis is clinical, and a high index of suspicion is needed to perform investigations for the underlying disorders.

Surveillance on Healthcare Workers During the First Wave of SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in Italy: The Experience of a Tertiary Care Pediatric Hospital.

Healthcare workers (HCWs) play a central role in handling the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Monitoring HCWs, both symptomatic and asymptomatic, through screening programs, are critical to avoid the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in the hospital environment to rapidly identify and isolate infected individuals and to allow their prompt return to work as soon as necessary. We aim to describe our healthcare surveillance experience (April 2-May 6, 2020) based on a combined screening consisting of real-time PCR (RT-PCR) on nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs and rapid serologic tests (RST) for SARS-CoV-2 in all HCWs of Meyer Children's University Hospital in Florence. Among the analyzed workers, 13/1690 (0.8%), all of them without clinical manifestations, was found positive for SARS-CoV-2 by using RT-PCR on NP swab: 8/1472 (0.5%) were found positive during the screening, 1/188 (0.5%) during contact with a positive individual (p > 0.05 vs. screening group), while 4/30 (13.3%) were found positive on the day of re-admission at work after an influenza-like-illness (p < 0.05). Concerning working areas, the majority of RT-PCR positivity (12/13) and serologic positivity (34/42) was found in non-COVID-19 dedicated areas (p > 0.05 vs. COVID-19 dedicated areas). No cases were registered among non-patients-facing workers (p = 0.04 vs. patient-facing group). Nurses and residents represented, respectively, the working role with the highest and lowest percentage of RT-PCR positivity. In conclusion, accurate surveillance is essential to reduce virus spread among HCWs, patients, and the community and to limit the shortage of skilled professionals. The implementation of the surveillance system through an efficient screening program was offered to all professionals, regardless of the presence of clinical manifestations and the level of working exposure risk, maybe wise and relevant.

Parent-Collected Nasal Swab for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Testing in Children.

This cross-sectional study, including children hospitalized for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection, demonstrates for the first time that nonhealthcare worker parents perform similarly to healthcare workers in the administration to their children of an unsupervised nasal swab for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 detection by following written instructions and video tutorials.

How home anterior self-collected nasal swab simplifies SARS-CoV-2 testing: new surveillance horizons in public health and beyond.

The sample collection procedure for SARS-CoV-2 has a strong impact on diagnostic capability, contact tracing approach, ultimately affecting the infection containment performance. This study demonstrates that self-collected nasal-swab has shown to be a valid and well tolerated procedure to SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in a healthcare system. More significantly, no performance adequacy difference was detected in self-administered swabs between healthcare worker (HCW) and non-HCW which allows to speculate that this procedure could be successfully extended to the entire population for mass screening.