Recently added articles from Pediatric News:
The changing face of severe asthma.(NEWS)(Clinical report)
May 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WASHINGTON -- Pediatric patients with severe asthma are younger, use fewer oral steroids, and take lower doses of inhaled steroids today than they did 10 years ago, based on findings from a single-center study of more than 200 patients. "The ...
Low vitamin D in teens tied to hypertension.(NEWS)
May 01, 2009; ... Low serum levels of vitamin D were linked to increased blood pressure, hyperglycemia, and obesity in an analysis of more than 3,500 American teenagers, a link previously seen in adults. In addition, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency has increased among all Americans, based ...
Medicaid trumps Medicare in paying for EHRs: incentive money comes from stimulus bill.(NEWS)
May 01, 2009; ... While Medicare is almost always a better payer than Medicaid, one notable exception is the health information technology funding contained in the Recovery Act. For physicians applying for incentive money to purchase electronic health record (EHR) systems, "Medicaid is a little ...
Hearing loss worst in Hispanic infants.(NEWS)
May 01, 2009; ... Neonatal hearing loss is especially prevalent among Hispanic Americans and children from low-income households, an analysis of existing data suggests. The average rate of neonatal hearing loss was 1.1/1,000 infants screened, although the number varied from state to state, with ...
Vital signs.(NEWS)(health funding in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 )(Brief article)
May 01, 2009 ... <Pre> Medicaid Gets Majority of Health Funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (billions of dollars) Other, $5.5 (4%) National Institutes of Health, $10.0 (7%) Health information technology, $19.2 (13%) COBRA, $24.7 (17%) Other Medicaid, ...
Practices must craft anti-identity theft program.(NEWS)
May 01, 2009; ... Physicians and health care organizations must prepare to implement a formal identity theft prevention program to protect their patients under a little-known set of regulations called the "Identity Theft Red Flags Rule." The rule, which was issued by the Federal Trade Commission ...
Asthma, antibiotics linked in food-allergic kids.(INFECTIOUS DISEASES)
May 01, 2009; ... WASHINGTON -- Pneumonia, sinus infections, and antibiotic use in a child's first year of life were independently associated with asthma in a study of more than 1,000 children with food allergies. Children with a history of antibiotic use in the first year of life had an almost ...
At-risk black teenage gifts value HPV vaccine.(INFECTIOUS DISEASES)
May 01, 2009; ... After participating in education and focus groups, poor, at-risk African American adolescent girls and their parents or caregivers had favorable opinions about the girls' receiving the human papillomavirus vaccine, study results suggest. The study also found that these teens ...
Prediction model for Lyme meningitis validated.(INFECTIOUS DISEASES)(Clinical report)
May 01, 2009; ... Clinical features that separate Lyme meningitis from other causes of aseptic meningitis in children include longer duration of headache, the presence of cranial nerve palsies, and cerebrospinal fluid mononuclear cell predominance, results from a single-center study in Rhode Island ...
Surveillance fails to stop MRSA in neonatal ICU.(INFECTIOUS DISEASES)
May 01, 2009; ... A 7-year program of intense surveillance and isolation in a neonatal intensive care unit failed to eradicate methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization. At the beginning of the period, in August 2000, the incidence of colonization with methicillin-resistant ...
Screen teens for Chlamydia.(ID CONSULT)
May 01, 2009; ... The latest figures on Chlamydia trachomatis screening suggest that many practitioners who see adolescents aren't giving the disease the attention that it deserves. It's been 20 years since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) first recommended routine chlamydia ...
Officials get ready for 2009-H1N1 to come back in the fall.(2009-H1N1 INFLUENZA)
May 01, 2009 ... Even as the rate of new 2009-H1N1 infections dwindles in the Northern Hemisphere, infection officials are bracing for the influenza's potential re-emergence this fall. At press time, in response to a request from President Obama, David Obey (D-Wisc.), chair of the House ...
Free home Chlamydia tests net high return.(INFECTIOUS DISEASES)
May 01, 2009; ... LOS ANGELES -- Free home swab test kits requested via the Internet have detected hundreds of cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and Trichomonas using a simple online recruitment strategy that was so effective that it is now being extended to several states. The novel "'I Want the ...
Expert reviews treatment options for CA-MRSA.(INFECTIOUS DISEASES)
May 01, 2009; ... SAN DIEGO -- Clindamycin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole are the most commonly used agents to treat community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus on an outpatient basis, but neither is perfect, according to one expert "The issue with clindamycin is that if you ...
Use diagnostic tools carefully.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
May 01, 2009; ... Dr. William G. Wilkoff zeroes in on target again in his column ("Shouldn't We Be Caulking?" January 2009, p. 16). One of the problems, as he implies, is that many labs/tests are ordered out of habit or reflex rather than out of a rational thought process. One reason for this is that a ...
Evaluate all children with high ALT.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
May 01, 2009; ... The headline for the article "High ALT May Not Mark Liver Disease" was inaccurate (December 2008, p. 1). The jump headline on page 6, "Look Beyond Liver Disease Dx," also was incorrect. The point of the article was that elevated ALT in obese children may not ...
Fix payment system for immunizations.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
May 01, 2009; ... Dr. Meera Raghunathan complained about the level of reimbursement for immunizations ("Slow, Low Pay for Vaccines Hurts," Letters, November 2008, p. 24). We all feel her pain. I am in a multi-office partnership with a central billing office, and we just found out that our local ...
Redefine 'early motor delays'.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
May 01, 2009; ... Although I agree fully with the benefits of tummy time and other play exercise for babies, I might argue that the definition of early motor delays--especially if one is using rolling over as a developmental milestone--needs to be changed ("Tummy Time Key to Prevent Delays," Guest ...
Pain relievers.(OPINION)(Cartoon)
May 01, 2009 ... 50 YEARS LATER ... "THE MEW ADVENTURES OF LASSIE!" [ILLUSTRATION ...
Broad and deep.(LETTERS FROM MAINE)(perfect medical education)(Column)
May 01, 2009; ... Regular readers of this column know that I attend meetings only when I have been threatened with a hefty fine or the loss of a dominant limb. Still and all, when a meeting came along about a well-known out-of-state medical school planning an expansion that might include midsized Maine ...