Human Papilloma Virus DNA Detection in Clinical Samples Using Fluorogenic Probes Based on Oligonucleotide Gated Nanoporous Anodic Alumina Films.

In this work, fluorogenic probes based on oligonucleotide capped nanoporous anodic alumina films are developed for specific and sensitive detection of human papilloma virus (HPV) DNA. The probe consists of anodic alumina nanoporous films loaded with the fluorophore rhodamine B (RhB) and capped with oligonucleotides bearing specific base sequences complementary to genetic material of different high-risk (hr) HPV types. Synthesis protocol is optimized for scale up production of sensors with high reproducibility. The sensors' surfaces are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (HR-FESEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) and their atomic composition is determined by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS). Oligonucleotide molecules onto nanoporous films block the pores and avoid diffusion of RhB to the liquid phase. Pore opening is produced when specific DNA of HPV is present in the medium, resulting in RhB delivery, that is detected by fluorescence measurements. The sensing assay is optimized for reliable fluorescence signal reading. Nine different sensors are synthesized for specific detection of 14 different hr-HPV types in clinical samples with very high sensitivity (100%) and high selectivity (93-100%), allowing rapid screening of virus infections with very high negative predictive values (100%).

Are Pediatric Critical Personnel Satisfied With Their Lives? Prediction of Satisfaction With Life From Burnout, Posttraumatic Stress, and Posttraumatic Growth, and Comparison With Noncritical Pediatric Staff.

OBJECTIVES: Staff in PICUs shows high burnout, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, and posttraumatic growth levels. However, their levels of satisfaction with life and how positive and negative posttrauma outcomes relate to each other and contribute to predict satisfaction with life remain unknown. Thus, we attempted to explore these aspects and to compare the findings with data from pediatric professionals working in noncritical units. DESIGN: This is an observational multicentric, cross-sectional study. SETTING: The PICU of nine hospitals in Spain, and other pediatric units in the same hospitals. SUBJECTS: Two hundred ninety-eight PICU workers (57 physicians, 177 nurses, and 64 nursing assistants) and 189 professionals working in noncritical pediatric units (53 physicians, 104 nurses, and 32 nursing assistants). INTERVENTION: Participants completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Trauma Screening Questionnaire, the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, and the Satisfaction With Life Scale. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Of PICU staff, 16.4% were very satisfied with their lives, 34.2% were satisfied, 34.6% showed average satisfaction with life, and 14.8% were below average. No differences were found between PICU and non-PICU workers. Women reported lower satisfaction with life than men, and physicians reported higher satisfaction with life than other professional groups. The correlation between posttraumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic growth was low, but significant and positive. According to the path analysis with latent variables, 20% of the variance satisfaction with life could be predicted from burnout, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, and posttraumatic growth. Higher distress was inversely associated to satisfaction with life, whereas posttraumatic growth contributed to higher satisfaction with life. CONCLUSIONS: Posttraumatic growth can moderate the negative effect of traumatic work-related experiences in satisfaction with life. PICU and non-PICU workers were equally satisfied with their lives. Positive and negative impact of work-related potentially traumatic events can coexist in the same person. Interventions aimed at reducing distress and fostering posttraumatic growth could impact in an improvement in pediatric health professionals' satisfaction with life.

Burnout and posttraumatic stress in paediatric critical care personnel: Prediction from resilience and coping styles.

INTRODUCTION: Our aims were (1) to explore the prevalence of burnout syndrome (BOS) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a sample of Spanish staff working in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and compare these rates with a sample of general paediatric staff and (2) to explore how resilience, coping strategies, and professional and demographic variables influence BOS and PTSD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a multicentre, cross-sectional study. Data were collected in the PICU and in other paediatric wards of nine hospitals. Participants consisted of 298 PICU staff members (57 physicians, 177 nurses, and 64 nursing assistants) and 189 professionals working in non-critical paediatric units (53 physicians, 104 nurses, and 32 nursing assistants). They completed the Brief Resilience Scale, the Coping Strategies Questionnaire for healthcare providers, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Trauma Screening Questionnaire. RESULTS: Fifty-six percent of PICU working staff reported burnout in at least one dimension (36.20% scored over the cut-off for emotional exhaustion, 27.20% for depersonalisation, and 20.10% for low personal accomplishment), and 20.1% reported PTSD. There were no differences in burnout and PTSD scores between PICU and non-PICU staff members, either among physicians, nurses, or nursing assistants. Higher burnout and PTSD rates emerged after the death of a child and/or conflicts with patients/families or colleagues. Around 30% of the variance in BOS and PTSD is predicted by a frequent usage of the emotion-focused coping style and an infrequent usage of the problem-focused coping style. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Interventions to prevent and treat distress among paediatric staff members are needed and should be focused on: (i) promoting active emotional processing of traumatic events and encouraging positive thinking; (ii) developing a sense of detached concern; (iii) improving the ability to solve interpersonal conflicts, and (iv) providing adequate training in end-of-life care.

An Exploratory Study of Sevoflurane as an Alternative for Difficult Sedation in Critically Ill Children.

OBJECTIVES: To analyze the effectiveness of inhaled sevoflurane in critically ill children with challenging sedation. DESIGN: Prospective case series. SETTING: Two PICUs of university hospitals in Spain. INTERVENTIONS: Prospective observational study and exploratory investigation conducted in two PICUs in Madrid, Spain, over a 6-year period. Children treated with inhaled sevoflurane due to difficult sedation were included. Sevoflurane was administered via the anesthetic conserving device (AnaConDa) connected to a Servo-I ventilator (Maquet, Solna, Sweden). A morphine infusion was added to sevoflurane for analgesia. Demographic and clinical data, oral and IV sedatives, Sedation and Analgesic Clinical scores, and Bispectral Index Score monitoring were registered. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Twenty-three patients with a median age of 6 months old were included. Fifty percentage of the patients had critical heart diseases. Sedative and analgesic drugs used before starting sevoflurane were mainly midazolam (63%) and fentanyl (53%). Six patients (32%) also received muscle relaxants. Sevoflurane was administered for a median of 5 days (interquartile range, 5.5-8.5 d). Median end-tidal sevoflurane concentration was 0.8% (interquartile range, 0.7-0.85%), achieved with an infusion rate of 7.5 mL/hr (5.7-8.6 mL/hr). After 48 hours of treatment, some sedative drugs could be removed in 18 patients (78%). Median Bispectral Index Score value prior to sevoflurane administration was 61 (interquartile range, 49-62), falling to 42 (interquartile range, 41-47; p < 0.05) after 6 hours of treatment. Six patients (26%) presented withdrawal syndrome after sevoflurane suspension, and all of them had received sevoflurane at least for 6 days. The main side effect was moderate hypotension in seven patients (30%). CONCLUSIONS: Inhaled sevoflurane appeared to be an effective sedative agent in critically ill children and can be useful in those patients on mechanical ventilation difficult to sedate with conventional drugs. It can be administered easily in the PICU with conventional ventilators using the AnaConDa system. Withdrawal syndrome may occur with prolonged treatment.

Aneurisma micótico intracraneal en lactante con meningitis neumocócica / Intracranial mycotic aneurysm in a 5 month-old infant with pneumococcal meningitis

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Posttraumatic growth in pediatric intensive care personnel: Dependence on resilience and coping strategies.

OBJECTIVE: Staff in pediatric intensive care units (PICU) are inherently exposed to potentially traumatic events. Posttraumatic growth (PTG) is the occurrence of positive changes after experiencing a traumatic event. This study aims (a) to evaluate the prevalence of PTG in PICU staff, and whether their scores are different from those reported by professionals working in other pediatric units, (b) to explore the role of resilience and coping strategies in predicting PTG, and (c) to explore the relation of demographic and work-related variables with PTG. METHOD: Participants of this multicentric, cross sectional study were 298 PICU workers and 189 professionals working in noncritical pediatric units. They completed the Brief Resilience Scale, a Coping Strategies Questionnaire, the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), and provided demographic and work-related information. RESULTS: Of PICU staff, 68.8% experienced growth to a "great" or "very great" degree in at least one of the PTGI's dimensions. Higher PTG was reported following the death of a child or after a recent conflict with a work colleague. PICU workers and noncritical pediatric staff showed equivalent PTG levels. Multigroup path analysis with latent variables showed that emotion-focused coping was related to PTG only in PICU staff, whereas problem-focused coping was related to PTG in both groups. The relation between resilience and PTG was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Work-related trauma can act as a catalyst for positive posttrauma changes. Modifying coping strategies may be a way to foster PTG in health care providers. (PsycINFO Database Record

Sevoflurane Therapy for Severe Refractory Bronchospasm in Children.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the effect of inhaled sevoflurane in the treatment of severe refractory bronchospasm in children. DESIGN: Retrospective case series. SETTING: Two PICUs of tertiary general university hospitals in Spain. PATIENTS: Ten patients ranging from 5 months to 14 years old with severe bronchospasm and acute respiratory failure requiring tracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation and treated with sevoflurane from 2008 to 2015. INTERVENTION: Inhaled sevoflurane therapy was initiated after failure of conventional medical management and mechanical ventilation. In two patients, sevoflurane was administered through a Servo 900C ventilator (Maquet, Bridgewater, NJ) equipped with a vaporizer and in the other eight patients via the Anesthetic Conserving Device (AnaConDa; Sedana medical, Uppsala, Sweden) with a critical care ventilator. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Inhaled sevoflurane resulted in statistically significant decreases of PaCO2 of 34.2 torr (95% CI, 8.3-60), peak inspiratory pressure of 14.3 cm H2O (95% CI, 8.6-19.9), and improvement in pH of 0.17 (0.346-0.002) within 6 hours of administration. Only one patient presented hypotension responsive to volume administration at the beginning of the treatment. All patients could be extubated within a median time of 120 hours (interquartile range, 46-216). CONCLUSIONS: Inhaled sevoflurane therapy decreases the levels of PaCO2 and peak inspiratory pressure values, and it may be considered as a rescue therapy in patients with life-threatening bronchospasm refractory to conventional therapy.

Initial experience with a new biodegradable airway stent in children: Is this the stent we were waiting for?

OBJECTIVE: To report our experience with a new type of biodegradable airway stent in the setting of severe tracheobronchial obstruction in children. DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY: We conducted a retrospective and prospective (since June 2014) study of pediatric patients with severe airway obstruction treated with biodegradable stents in our institution between 2012 and 2015. The following data were collected: demographics, indication for stenting, bronchoscopic findings, insertion technique complications, clinical outcome, stent related complications, re-stenting, and time of follow-up. RESULTS: Thirteen custom-made polydioxanone stents were placed in four infants (mean age, 4 months) with severe tracheobronchial obstruction: tracheomalacia (two patients), bronchomalacia (1), and diffuse tracheal stenosis (1). All the stents were bronchoscopically inserted uneventfully. Immediate and maintained clinical improvement was observed in every case. No major stent related complications have occurred and only mild or moderate granulation tissue was observed during surveillance bronchoscopy. Two patients required repeated stenting as expected. All the patients are alive and in a good respiratory condition with a follow-up ranging from 5 to 40 months. CONCLUSIONS: Biodegradable airway stents seem to be safe, effective, and cause fewer complications than other types of stents. They can be an alternative to the classic metallic or plastic stents for severe tracheal stenosis or malacia in small children. More experience is needed in order to establish the definite clinical criteria for their use in pediatric patients. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2016;51:607-612. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Intersubjetividad, simbolización y problemas de aprendizaje: Psicodiagnóstico, abordaje terapéutico y cambio clínico / Intersubjectivty, symbolization and learning problems: psychodiagnosis, therapeutical approach and clinical change

El presente trabajo forma parte de una investigación Doctoral en curso. Se fundamenta en investigaciones teórico–clínicas del campo psicoanalítico y tiene por objeto mostrar la incidencia de los procesos psíquicos en las restricciones del potencial simbólico de niños que presentan problemas de aprendizaje. El proceso psicodiagnóstico permitió abrir líneas de intervención terapéutica tendientes al enriquecimiento de los procesos de simbolización de los mismos. Se culmina el periodo con un diagnóstico final realizando el retest de las mismas técnicas administradas en el diagnóstico inicial con el fin de establecer relaciones comparativas de comienzo y cierre del ciclo de trabajo clínico. Se trata por lo tanto de un estudio longitudinal con orientación al cambio clínico. Se aplicó un instrumento que demostró ser eficaz para la exploración y análisis de áreas del desarrollo del aparato psíquico, como el Cuestionario Desiderativo. Analizaremos indicadores aplicados a un caso clínico extraído de la investigación en curso mencionada...

This article is part of a doctoral research thesis in progress. It is based on theoretical–clinical research in the field of psychoanalysis and aims to show the incidence of psychic processes in the limitations of the symbolic potential of children with learning disabilities. The psychodiagnostic process made it possible to open lines of therapeutic intervention aimed at the enrichment of the processes of symbolization of the aforementioned children. The period concludes with a final diagnosis achieved by means of a retest, applying the same techniques administered for the initial diagnosis, in order to establish comparative relations from the beginning to the closing of the cycle of clinical work. It is therefore a longitudinal study oriented to clinical change. An instrument which proved to be effective for the exploration and analysis of areas of development of the psychic structure such as the Desiderative questionnaire was applied. We’ll look at indicators applied to a clinical case appearing in this ongoing research...

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus USA300 Latin American Variant in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis and HIV Infected in a Hospital in Bogotá, Colombia.

We aimed to determine the prevalence of MRSA colonization and examine the molecular characteristics of colonizing isolates in patients receiving hemodialysis and HIV-infected in a Colombian hospital. Patients on hemodialysis and HIV-infected were prospectively followed between July 2011 and June 2012 in Bogota, Colombia. Nasal and axillary swabs were obtained and cultured. Colonizing S. aureus isolates were identified by standard and molecular techniques. Molecular typing was performed by using pulse-field gel electrophoresis and evaluating the presence of lukF-PV/lukS-PV by PCR. A total of 29% (n = 82) of HIV-infected and 45.5% (n = 15) of patients on hemodialysis exhibited S. aureus colonization. MSSA/MRSA colonization was observed in 28% and 3.6% of the HIV patients, respectively and in 42.4% and 13.3% of the hemodialysis patients, respectively. Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec typing showed that four MRSA isolates harbored the type IV cassette, and one type I. In the hemodialysis group, two MRSA isolates were classified as belonging to the USA300-LV genetic lineage. Conversely, in the HIV infected group, no colonizing isolates belonging to the USA300-Latin American Variant (UDA300-LV) lineage were identified. Colonizing isolates recovered from the HIV-infected group belonged to the prevalent hospital-associated clones circulating in Latin America (Chilean [n = 1] and Pediatric [n = 2]). The prevalence of MRSA colonization in the study groups was 3.6% (HIV) and 13.3% (hemodialysis). Surveillance programs should be implemented in this group of patients in order to understand the dynamics of colonization and infection in high-risk patients.

Use of combined transmucosal fentanyl, nitrous oxide, and hematoma block for fracture reduction in a pediatric emergency department.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of combined inhaled nitrous oxide (NO), hematoma block (HB), and transmucosal fentanyl (TMF) as sedoanalgesia in the reduction of radioulnar fractures in children in a pediatric emergency department (PED). METHODS: A retrospective, analytical observational study examining the cases of radioulnar fracture reduction in PED from 2007 to 2009 in children from 4 to 15 years old. The cases were divided into 2 groups: those in which only NO + HB was used and those in which TMF was combined with NO + HB. The pain perceived by the child, the doctor, and the nurse was studied during the procedure with 0- to 10-point scales (10 being severe pain). Satisfaction of the medical professionals, duration of the procedure, and the adverse effects that appeared were also studied. RESULTS: Eighty-one children were included. Sixty-four children (79%) received NO + TMF + HB, and 17 children (21%) received NO + HB only. The pain perceived by the child during the procedure in the group receiving NO + TMF + HB was 2.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8-3.1) compared with 3.9 (95% CI, 2.3-5.5) in the NO + HB group (P = 0.035), the pain perceived by the doctor was 2.6 (95% CI, 2-3.2) compared with 4 (95% CI, 1.6-4), and by the nurse was 2.7 (95% CI, 2-3.3) compared with 3.9 (95% CI, 2.3-5.5), respectively. Adverse events appeared in 15.3% of the NO + TMF + HB group and in 40% of the NO + HB group. CONCLUSIONS: The association of NO + TMF + HB in the reduction of radioulnar fractures in PED improves pain control compared with the NO + HB combination. New studies are required to confirm the benefit and safety of this drug combination.

Community-associated Staphylococcus aureus infections in children.

Staphylococcus aureus is an important human pathogen that affects children worldwide. The number of publications discussing community-associated S. aureus infections, particularly in children, adolescents and young adults, has increased in recent years. This is related to the emergence and worldwide spread of community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus and the increase in severe life-threatening community-associated S. aureus infections. The increase in severity has been seen with both methicillin-resistant and methicillin-susceptible strains. This suggests that other virulence factors might be associated with the observed trend. Panton-Valentine leukocidin is a distinctive virulence factor associated with a highly aggressive and often fatal form of community-acquired infections. We propose that empiric treatment should be adapted to the type of infection and the resistance profile present in each country or region. In cases of severe infection, a combination of antibiotics, including at least one molecule active against protein synthesis such as clindamycin or linezolid, will be needed.