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What Are the Complications of Sickle Cell Trait?
Discussion Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of inherited blood disorders where there are abnormal hemoglobin molecules and the red blood cells take on a characteristic sickled shape instead of a rounded shape. Sickled hemoglobin provides an evolutionary advantage of giving the individual increased protection against severe and cerebral malaria. The sickled shape doesn’t move through the vascular system as well and therefore is more likely to aggregate in small vessels causing an increased risk of vaso-occlusive disease, acute chest syndrome, splenic sequestration, and priapism. There is also an increased risk of ...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - September 4, 2023 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Pediatric Education Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

Can Patent Foramen Ovales Cause Problems?
Discussion During fetal development, the heart primum and secundum septa grow and overlap leaving a small but important channel between the two atria. The foramen ovale is a flap valve moving blood from the right atrium into the left atrium directly and bypassing the high pressure pulmonary system. After birth and breathing air, the neonate’s lungs open up and the pulmonary vascular resistance decreases. The left atrium now has a relatively higher pressure than the right atria, and therefore pressure on the flap valve closes the foramen ovale. Usually within 6-12 months, the fusion of the primum and secundum of the f...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - July 24, 2023 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Pediatric Education Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

What Are the Classifications of Perinatal Stroke?
Discussion Perinatal stroke occurs in about 1:1000 live births and is a “focal vascular injury from the fetal period to 28 days postnatal age.” Perinatal stroke is the most common cause of hemiparetic cerebral palsy and causes other significant morbidity including cognitive deficits, learning disabilities, motor problems, sensory problems including visual and hearing disorders, epilepsy, and behavioral and psychological problems. Family members are also affected because of the potential anxiety and guilt feelings that having a child with a stroke presents, along with the care that may be needed over the child&#...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - May 1, 2023 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Pediatric Education Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

Is This Primary Exertional Headache?
Discussion Commonly occurring primary headaches include tension, cluster and migraine headaches. “Other primary headaches” are often situational. Patients can have more than 1 type of these “other” headaches along with more common headaches. Other primary headaches as a group tend to be self-limited with long remission periods. Some other primary headaches include: Thunderclap headache Explosive sudden onset with maximum intensity in less 1 minute and resolution within 5 minutes usually 43/100,000 persons in adults Primary or secondary Secondary causes include intracranial hemorrhage, stroke, thro...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - November 21, 2022 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Pediatric Education Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

What are Some Risk Factors for Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy Outcomes?
Discussion “Neonatal encephalopathy, manifesting as altered responsiveness, seizures, apnea and abnormal muscle tone and reflexes, resulting from hypoxic-ischemic injury is termed hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).” Neonatal encephalopathy can be associated with other problems including stroke, hemorrhage, infection, pre-term brain injury and hypoglycemia as some examples. Sometimes more than one of these entities occurs simultaneously such as hypoglycemia and HIE. HIE can result in long-term neurological problems including motor, behavioral, and cognitive problems that can become apparent even years later....
Source: PediatricEducation.org - December 13, 2021 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Pediatric Education Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

How Good is Photoscreening For Young Children ’ s Vision Problems?
This study showed that not only was smartphone photoscreening feasible, but was quite good at screening for potential vision problems. Smartphone photoscreening has the advantages of being more ubiquitously available and thus children in almost any location can be screened. A study of photoscreening using a handheld digital photoscreener in primary care offices validated the technology showing an overall referral rate of 10% to an ophthalmologist with suspected astigmatism, anisometropia and strabismus being the most common reasons. The overall positive predictive rate was 0.60. “…[O]ver 60% of children referre...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - January 4, 2021 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Pediatric Education Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

What Are the Main Acyanotic Congenital Heart Diseases?
Discussion Congenital heart diseases (CHD) are malformations of the heart and great vessels. It occurs in about 5-8/1000 live births. Cyanotic congenital heart disease is often noted perinatally because of cyanosis, respiratory distress and/or poor feeding or other distress type problems. A review can be found here. Acyanotic congenital heart disease (ACHD) can present at birth but often is seen in older children or adults unless the lesions are severe, especially obstructive lesions. Severe lesions may also cause cyanosis and distress type problems in patients also. Shunting lesions cause problems by diverting blood flo...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - August 17, 2020 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Pediatric Education Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

What Types of Memory Impairments are There in Children?
Discussion Memory is an important part of what distinguishes higher order species from others. Memory also is part of one’s self-identity. Difficulties in short-term memory can make common, everyday tasks difficult for the person experiencing the problem particularly if it recently occurred and the person’s long-term memory is intact. Difficulties with long-term memory can also have problems when language, events or even one’s own identity are affected. For some people the memory loss is temporary but for others, memory impairments are permanent and must be accepted and accommodated as part of the overall...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - March 30, 2020 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Pediatric Education Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

What Causes Facial Nerve Palsy?
Discussion Facial nerve palsy has been known for centuries, but in 1821 unilateral facial nerve paralysis was described by Sir Charles Bell. Bell’s palsy (BP) is a unilateral, acute facial paralysis that is clinically diagnosed after other etiologies have been excluded by appropriate history, physical examination and/or laboratory testing or imaging. Symptoms include abnormal movement of facial nerve. It can be associated with changes in facial sensation, hearing, taste or excessive tearing. The right and left sides are equally affected but bilateral BP is rare (0.3%). Paralysis can be complete or incomplete at prese...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - June 3, 2019 Category: Pediatrics Authors: pediatriceducationmin Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

Can Fish Oil Help Reading?
Discussion Fats and fatty acids are essential for good human health. Saturated fats have hydrogen pairs linked to each carbon on the carbon backbone. They are solid or semi-solid at room temperature. Common examples are butter, lard, or hardened vegetable shortening. They are linked to higher cholesterol and triglycerides and only a small amount of them are recommended to be consumed in the diet. Unsaturated fats have one or more hydrogen atoms missing from the carbon backbone. They are liquid at room temperature. Monounsaturated fatty acids have one hydrogen pair that is missing from the carbon backbone. They are liq...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - November 20, 2017 Category: Pediatrics Authors: pediatriceducationmin Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

What Causes Microcephaly?
Discussion Microcephaly is usually defined as an occipitofrontal head circumference (OFC) more than 2 standard deviations (SD) below the mean for sex, age and ethnicity. Severe microcephaly is used for OFC < 3 standard deviations. Rates of microcephaly range from 0.5-12 patients/10,000 live births. The OFC should be measured at every well child visit and at other opportunities and plotted on standard growth charts. The OFC is measured using a nonelastic tape measure around the largest part of the head with the tape measure held above the eyebrows and ears. It is a highly reproducible measurement. There are several diff...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - September 25, 2017 Category: Pediatrics Authors: pediatriceducationmin Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

What Genetics are Associated with Multiple Sclerosis?
Discussion Multiple sclerosis (MS) is “a chronic degenerative, often episodic disease of the central nervous system marked by patchy destruction of the myelin that surrounds and insulates nerve fibers, usually appearing in young adulthood and manifested by one or more mild to severe neural and muscular impairments, as spastic weakness in one or more limbs, local sensory losses, bladder dysfunction, or visual disturbances.” It is a chronic disease and therefore symptoms must occur more than once. The first episode is called an acute demyelinating attack. Fifteen to forty-five percent of children with their first...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - April 4, 2016 Category: Pediatrics Authors: pediatriceducationmin Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

What Causes Ataxia?
Discussion Coordination and balance problems are caused by various problems affecting the central and peripheral nervous system. Normal development of a child or weakness of a child are commonly mistaken for true ataxia. Ataxia specifically refers to “…impairment of the coordination of movement without loss of muscle strength.” If it is purely due to abnormalities of the cerebellum then there should be no changes in mental status, sensation or weakness. Sometimes it is difficult to determine if there are abnormalities in other areas. For example, Guillian-Barre often presents with difficulty or clumsy wal...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - March 31, 2014 Category: Pediatrics Authors: pediatriceducationmin Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news