1,720,957 research outputs found
The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network intermediate-risk predictors were not associated with scanning decisions for minor head injuries
No full textAim: This study determined the predictors associated with the decision to perform a computed tomography (CT) scan in children with a minor head injury (MHI). We focused on those facing an intermediate risk of clinically important traumatic brain injury (ciTBI), according to the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) prediction rule.
Methods: A 1-year, cross-sectional study was performed in an Italian paediatric emergency department, focusing on children presenting within 24 h of an MHI and meeting the PECARN intermediate-risk criteria.
Results: We included 308 children, and 47% were younger than 2 years of age. CT scans were carried out on 13%, 1.3% had a ciTBI and one was initially missed but did not need neurosurgery following diagnosis. Single and multiple PECARN intermediate-risk predictors were not associated with whether a CT scan was carried out. The only clinical variable associated with the decision to perform a CT scan was if the child was <3 months of age (OR 18.1, 95% CI, 4.91-66.61).
Conclusion: The PECARN intermediate-risk predictors did not play a major role in the decision to perform a CT scan. The only factor significantly associated with the decision to perform a CT scan was when the patient was younger than 3 months of age
Implementation of Adapted PECARN Decision Rule for Children With Minor Head Injury in the Pediatric Emergency Department.
No full textObjectives: Of the currently published clinical decision rules for the management of minor head injury (MHI) in children, the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) rule, derived and validated in a large multicenter prospective study cohort, with high methodologic standards, appears to be the best clinical decision rule to accurately identify children at very low risk of clinically important traumatic brain injuries (ciTBI) in the pediatric emergency department (PED). This study describes the implementation of an adapted version of the PECARN rule in a tertiary care academic PED in Italy and evaluates implementation success, in terms of medical staff adherence and satisfaction, as well as its effects on clinical practice. Methods: The adapted PECARN decision rule algorithms for children (one for those younger than 2 years and one for those older than 2 years) were actively implemented in the PED of Padova, Italy, for a 6-month testing period. Adherence and satisfaction of medical staff to the new rule were calculated. Data from 356 visits for MHI during PECARN rule implementation and those of 288 patients attending the PED for MHI in the previous 6 months were compared for changes in computed tomography (CT) scan rate, ciTBI rate (defined as death, neurosurgery, intubation for longer than 24 hours, or hospital admission at least for two nights associated with TBI) and return visits for symptoms or signs potentially related to MHI. The safety and efficacy of the adapted PECARN rule in clinical practice were also calculated. Results: Adherence to the adapted PECARN rule was 93.5%. The percentage of medical staff satisfied with the new rule, in terms of usefulness and ease of use for rapid decision-making, was significantly higher (96% vs. 51%, p < 0.0001) compared to the previous, more complex, internal guideline. CT scan was performed in 30 patients (8.4%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 6% to 11.8%) in the implementation period versus 21 patients (7.3%, 95% CI = 4.8% to 10.9%) before implementation. A ciTBI occurred in three children (0.8%, 95% CI = 0.3 to 2.5) during the implementation period and in two children (0.7%, 95% CI = 0.2 to 2.5) in the prior 6 months. There were five return visits (1.4%) postimplementation and seven (2.4%) before implementation (p = 0.506). The safety of use of the adapted PECARN rule in clinical practice was 100% (95% CI = 36.8 to 100; three of three patients with ciTBI who received CT scan at first evaluation), while efficacy was 92.3% (95% CI = 89 to 95; 326 of 353 patients without ciTBI who did not receive a CT scan). Conclusions: The adapted PECARN rule was successfully implemented in an Italian tertiary care academic PED, achieving high adherence and satisfaction of medical staff. Its use determined a low CT scan rate that was unchanged compared to previous clinical practice and showed an optimal safety and high efficacy profile. Strict monitoring is mandatory to evaluate the long-lasting benefit in patient care and/or resource utilization
Bacteremia in feverish children presenting to the emergency department: a retrospective study and literature review
No full textAim: To evaluate the incidence of bacteremia, and the isolated pathogens, in well-appearing children with fever without source (FWS) presenting to the pediatric emergency department (PED), after pneumococcal conjucate vaccine - 7 valent (PCV-7) widespread introduction in the Veneto region of north-eastern Italy, and to review the main literature contributions on the subject.
Methods: Blood cultures performed at the PED of Padova from 1 June 2006 to 31 January 2009 in febrile children aged 1-36 months were retrospectively retrieved. Medical records of previously healthy well-appearing children with FWS were identified and reviewed.
Results: The study finally included 392 patients. Bacteremia rate was 0.34% (95% CI 0-1) in the age group 3-36 months and 2% (95% CI 0-4.7) in infants 1-3 months. No Streptococcus pneumoniae was isolated. The literature review identified 10 relevant studies carried out in the USA and Spain showing an overall bacteremia rate <1% for feverish children aged 3-36 months, with values <0.5% in settings with high PCV-7 coverage.
Conclusion: Overall bacteremia rate is currently <0.5% in well-appearing children aged 3-36 months with FWS attending the PED in areas with PCV-7 widespread vaccination and is sufficiently low to preclude laboratory testing in favour of close follow-up. Further research is needed to evaluate a more conservative approach in infants 2-3 months of age
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Implementation of PECARN Decision Rule for Children with Minor Head Injury in the Pediatric Emergency Department
No full textDispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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