Childhood infection burden, recent antibiotic exposure and vascular phenotypes in preschool children.

BACKGROUND: Severe childhood infection has a dose-dependent association with adult cardiovascular events and with adverse cardiometabolic phenotypes. The relationship between cardiovascular outcomes and less severe childhood infections is unclear. AIM: To investigate the relationship between common, non-hospitalised infections, antibiotic exposure, and preclinical vascular phenotypes in young children. DESIGN: A Dutch prospective population-derived birth cohort study. METHODS: Participants were from the Wheezing-Illnesses-Study-Leidsche-Rijn (WHISTLER) birth cohort. We collected data from birth to 5 years on antibiotic prescriptions, general practitioner (GP)-diagnosed infections, and monthly parent-reported febrile illnesses (0-1 years). At 5 years, carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), carotid artery distensibility, and blood pressure (BP) were measured. General linear regression models were adjusted for age, sex, smoke exposure, birth weight z-score, body mass index, and socioeconomic status. RESULTS: Recent antibiotic exposure was associated with adverse cardiovascular phenotypes; each antibiotic prescription in the 3 and 6 months prior to vascular assessment was associated with an 18.1 µm (95% confidence interval, 4.5-31.6, p = 0.01) and 10.7 µm (0.8-20.5, p = 0.03) increase in CIMT, respectively. Each additional antibiotic prescription in the preceding 6 months was associated with an 8.3 mPa-1 decrease in carotid distensibility (-15.6- -1.1, p = 0.02). Any parent-reported febrile episode (compared to none) showed weak evidence of association with diastolic BP (1.6 mmHg increase, 0.04-3.1, p = 0.04). GP-diagnosed infections were not associated with vascular phenotypes. CONCLUSIONS: Recent antibiotics are associated with adverse vascular phenotypes in early childhood. Mechanistic studies may differentiate antibiotic-related from infection-related effects and inform preventative strategies.

Clustering of trauma patients based on longitudinal data and the application of machine learning to predict recovery.

Predicting recovery after trauma is important to provide patients a perspective on their estimated future health, to engage in shared decision making and target interventions to relevant patient groups. In the present study, several unsupervised techniques are employed to cluster patients based on longitudinal recovery profiles. Subsequently, these data-driven clusters were assessed on clinical validity by experts and used as targets in supervised machine learning models. We present a formalised analysis of the obtained clusters that incorporates evaluation of (i) statistical and machine learning metrics, (ii) clusters clinical validity with descriptive statistics and medical expertise. Clusters quality assessment revealed that clusters obtained through a Bayesian method (High Dimensional Supervised Classification and Clustering) and a Deep Gaussian Mixture model, in combination with oversampling and a Random Forest for supervised learning of the cluster assignments provided among the most clinically sensible partitioning of patients. Other methods that obtained higher classification accuracy suffered from cluster solutions with large majority classes or clinically less sensible classes. Models that used just physical or a mix of physical and psychological outcomes proved to be among the most sensible, suggesting that clustering on psychological outcomes alone yields recovery profiles that do not conform to known risk factors.

Clinical Course and Management of Dengue in Children Admitted to Hospital: A 5 Years Prospective Cohort Study in Jakarta, Indonesia.

BACKGROUND: Dengue incidence is rising globally which was estimated 100 million per year, whereas in Indonesia was estimated 7.5 million per year. Dengue clinical course varies from mild dengue fever (DF) to dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) or dengue shock syndrome (DSS). Patients, clinicians and care facilities would benefit if reliable predictors can determine at admission which cases with clinically suspected dengue will progress to DHF or DSS. METHODS: From 2009 through 2013, a cohort of 494 children admitted with clinically suspected dengue at a tertiary care hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, was followed until discharge. We evaluated the clinical course and disease outcome of admitted patients and estimated the burden of dengue cases hospitalized over time. RESULTS: Of all 494 children, 185 (37%) were classified at admission as DF, 158 (32%) as DHF and 151 (31%) as DSS. Of DF patients, 52 (28%) progressed to DHF or DSS, 10 (5%) had other viral diseases. Of DHF patients, 9(6%) progressed to DSS. Of 33 routinely collected parameters at admission, duration of fever ≤4 days was the only significant predictor of disease progression (P = 0.01). Five cases (3%) admitted with DSS died. Between 2009 and 2013, annual dengue admissions declined, while distribution of disease severity remained stable. CONCLUSIONS: Almost a third of children admitted to tertiary care with clinically suspected DF progress to DHF or DSS. Among routinely collected parameters at admission, only fever duration was significantly associated with clinical progression, emphasizing unpredictability of dengue disease course from parameters currently routinely collected.

Clinical Course and Management of Dengue in Children Admitted to Hospital; A 5 Years Prospective Cohort Study in Jakarta, Indonesia.

BACKGROUND: Dengue incidence is rising globally which was estimated 100 million per year, whereas in Indonesia was estimated 7.5 million per year. Dengue clinical course varies from mild dengue fever (DF) to dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) or dengue shock syndrome (DSS). Patients, clinicians and care facilities would benefit if reliable predictors can determine at admission which cases with clinically suspected dengue will progress to DHF or DSS. METHODS: From 2009 through 2013, a cohort of 496 children admitted with clinically suspected dengue at a tertiary care hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia in, was followed until discharge. We evaluated the clinical course and disease outcome of admitted patients, and estimated the burden of dengue cases hospitalized over time. RESULTS: Of all 496 children, 185 (37%) were classified at admission as DF, 158 (32%) as DHF and 153 (31%) as DSS. Of DF patients, 52 (28%) progressed to DHF or DSS, 10 (5%) had other viral diseases. Of DHF patients, 9(6%) progressed to DSS. No patients died. Of 33 routinely collected parameters at admission, duration of fever ≤ 4 days was the only significant predictor of disease progression (p= 0.01). Between 2009 and 2013, annual dengue admissions declined, while the distribution of disease severity remained stable. CONCLUSIONS: Almost a third of children admitted to tertiary care with clinically suspected DF progress to DHF or DSS. Among routinely collected parameters at admission, only fever duration was significantly associated with clinical progression, emphasizing the unpredictability of dengue disease course from parameters currently routinely collected.

Abdominal fat and blood pressure in healthy young children.

OBJECTIVES: High blood pressure (BP) and obesity are well known risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Both risk factors exert an influence early in life, and BP is related to body weight. However, the effect of abdominal fat accumulation on BP in childhood is still unclear. We aimed to determine the relation between visceral adipose tissue (VAT), subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and BP in young children. METHODS: In 862 healthy 5-year-old children of the Wheezing-Illnesses-Study-Leidsche-Rijn birth cohort, VAT and SAT were measured ultrasonographically. SBP and DBP were measured in sitting and supine postures using a semi-automatic oscillometric device. General linear regression analyses were performed to assess associations between abdominal fat and BP adjusted for confounders. Further explanatory models were run to explore if associations with localized abdominal fat distributions were independent of measures of overall body adiposity. RESULTS: Each millimeter increase in VAT was related to 0.17 mmHg (95% confidence interval: 0.08; 0.3) and 0.11 mmHg (0.02; 0.2) higher sitting SBP and DBP, respectively. These associations remained after additional adjustment for BMI (SBP: 0.14 mmHg/mm, 0.05; 0.2; DBP: 0.11 mmHg/mm, 0.02; 0.2), waist circumference (SBP: 0.16 mmHg/mm, 0.06; 0.3; DBP: 0.12 mmHg/mm, 0.03; 0.2) or early life growth (SBP: 0.16 mmHg/mm, 0.07; 0.3; DBP: 0.115 mmHg/mm, 0.03; 0.2). Associations between VAT and supine SBP and DBP were, respectively, 0.14 mmHg/mm (0.06; 0.2) and 0.08 mmHg/mm (0.004; 0.2), which remained after further explanatory analyses. SAT was not associated to SBP or DBP. CONCLUSION: Independent of body size, children with more VAT have higher BP, especially when measured in sitting posture.