Aetiology of pleural effusions in children living in a high TB endemic setting.

Confirming the aetiology of pleural effusion in children may be difficult in TB-endemic settings. We investigated the role of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and routine biochemical tests in discriminating pleural effusion caused by bacteria from other aetiologies.This is a cross-sectional post-hoc analysis among children with pleural effusion in a tertiary hospital in South Africa, incorporating new data from PCR testing of stored pleural fluid. Aetiological classification was defined by microbiological confirmation.Ninety-one children were enrolled; the median age 31 months (IQR 12-102). The aetiology of pleural effusion was 40% (36/91) bacteria, 11% (10/91) TB, 3% (3/91) viruses, 11% (10/91) polymicrobial and 35% (32/91) had no pathogen identified. The most common pathogen was Staphylococcus aureus (27/91, 30%) with similar yields on culture and PCR, followed by Streptococcus pneumoniae (12/91, 13%), detected more commonly by PCR. PCR reduced the number of children with unconfirmed aetiologies from 48 to 32. Characteristics of children with no pathogen most resembled those with TB. Pleural fluid lactate dehydrogenase ≥1,716 U/L best discriminated bacterial pleural effusion from other aetiologies (sensitivity of 86%; specificity 95%).PCR improved detection of pathogens and reduced number of children with unconfirmed aetiologies in presumed exudative pleural effusion..

Aetiology and presentation of childhood pleural infections in the post-pneumococcal conjugate vaccine era in South Africa.

Background: Complications of respiratory infections including pleural effusion (PE) are associated with a high morbidity. Differentiating between PE caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection and other bacterial infections in endemic areas is difficult in children, thus, impacting treatment. Objectives: To investigate the aetiology of PE and features distinguishing tuberculosis (TB) from bacterial PE in children. Methods: We conducted a prospective study in children with PE admitted to a tertiary hospital in Cape Town from December 2017 to December 2019. Clinical information and routine laboratory investigations were compared between children with bacterial, Mtb or unclassified PE, categorised according to study definitions. Results: A total of 91 patients were included in the present study and their median age was 31 months (interquartile range (IQR) 11.8 - 102.1). The aetiology was bacterial in 40% (n=37), Mtb in 39% (n=36) and unclassified in 20% (n=18) of patients. Staphylococcus aureus was the most common bacterial isolate, confirmed in 65% (n=24/37) patients, and Streptococcus pneumoniae was confirmed in only 8% of patients. TB was microbiologically confirmed in 33% (n=12/36) of patients. Patients with TB were older (91.6 v. 11.8 months; p<0.001), with more weight loss (28 v. 12 patients; p<0.001), and longer cough duration (10 v. 4 days; p<0.001) than those with other bacterial PE. In contrast, the latter had significantly higher serum C-reactive protein (median 250 v. 122 mg/L; p<0.001), procalcitonin (11 v. 0.5 mg/L; p<0.001), pleural fluid lactate dehydrogenase (7 280 v. 544 U/L; p<0.001), and adenosine deaminase levels (162 v. 48 U/L; p<0.001) and lower glucose levels (1.3 v. 4 mmol/L; p<0.001). Conclusion: Post 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, S. aureus is the dominant cause of PE in children using traditional culture methods, while Mtb remains a common cause of PE in our setting. Useful clinical and laboratory differences between Mtb and other bacterial PE were identified, but the cause of PE in 20% of children was underdetermined. Molecular testing of pleural fluid for respiratory pathogens may be useful in such children.

A review of the use of high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy in hospitalised children at a regional hospital in the Cape Town Metro, South Africa.

BACKGROUND: High-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) oxygen is a non-invasive alternative to nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy for infants and children requiring respiratory support. There is a paucity of data to support its use in children, with no published data from sub-Saharan Africa. OBJECTIVES: To describe the outcomes of and adverse events related to HFNC in the first year of its use in a level 2 (L2) general paediatric ward, and to compare these outcomes with those of a historical cohort when this intervention was unavailable. METHODS: This retrospective descriptive study included children aged <13 years who received HFNC in the first 12 months after its introduction (HFNC-availability group, n=66). Demographic data, clinical characteristics and outcomes (death, treatment failure, length of HFNC and HFNC-related adverse events) were assessed. A comparative description of children who required transfer to level 3 (L3) for any form of respiratory support (other than the available standard low-flow oxygen) during the 12-month period prior to HFNC availability (pre-HFNC group, n=54) was made. All analyses were performed in the paediatric wards, New Somerset Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa. Outcomes were compared using standard descriptive and comparative statistics. RESULTS: The median age of the cohort was 5 months (interquartile range (IQR) 1.9 - 14.6). Sixteen children (13.3%) were malnourished, 10 (8.3%) were HIV-infected, and 30 (25.0%) had been born prematurely. The most common diagnoses were pneumonia, bronchiolitis and asthma. Asthma, anaemia and cardiac abnormalities were the most prevalent underlying comorbidities. Two children died in each group. All 54 children in the pre-HFNC group were transferred to L3; 38 (70.4%) needed CPAP or invasive ventilation. In the HFNC-availability period, 85 children were assessed as needing more than standard low-flow oxygen therapy: of the 19 immediately transferred to L3, 17 (89.4%) received CPAP or invasive ventilation; of the 66 who received HFNC at L2, 16 (24.2%) subsequently required transfer to L3 for CPAP or invasive ventilation. The median duration of HFNC was 46.3 hours (IQR 19.5 - 93.5) overall, and it was 12 hours (IQR 4 - 28) and 58.5 hours (IQR 39.5 - 106) for those who failed or were successfully managed on HFNC, respectively. No HFNC-related serious adverse events were recorded. CONCLUSIONS: HFNC is a safe, effective, feasible option for non-invasive ventilation of children with respiratory illnesses in a resource-limited L2 setting. A greater proportion of children with lower respiratory tract infections in the HFNC-availability group than in the pre-HFNC group required support, but the intervention reduced the bed pressure on L3. Improved ways to identify HFNC failures would be beneficial.

[Muenster Parental Programme--Feedback from Parents: How do parents evaluate an early intervention programme for improving the communication with their baby or toddler with hearing impairment?]. / Münsteraner Elternprogramm--Elternfeedback: Wie beurteilen Eltern die Frühintervention zur Kommunikationsförderung von Säuglingen und Kleinkindern mit Hörschädigung?

BACKGROUND: With the implementation of the UNHS, early educational services' existing concepts of early intervention have to be adapted to the situation and needs of families with a preverbal child who is deaf or hard of hearing. The Muenster Parental Programme (MPP), a module in early family-centered intervention, fulfils this requirement. OBJECTIVE: We report feedback from participating parents regarding processes and outcomes of the MPP. The self-developed questionnaire was checked for its suitability as feedback instrument for measuring parental satisfaction with the MPP. METHOD: 29 parents who participated in the MPP assessed the programme by using the standardised FBB and the self-developed questionnaire FB-MEP, which is specific to the MPP. RESULTS: Using the FBB, 96% of parents judged the MPP to be good or very good. With the FB-MEP, parents rated setting, contents and didactics as highly as they did using the FBB (r = 0.7, p < 0.01). In particular, parents judged both the contact and exchange with other affected parents, and the specific individual support for communicating with their child (including video feedback) as especially helpful. CONCLUSIONS: The results reflect parents' high level of satisfaction with the setting, content, didactics and individual benefit gained by their child and themselves from the MPP. The parents are aware of the efficacy of the MPP, which was shown in the controlled intervention study. The self-developed questionnaire FB-MEP was shown to be a suitable instrument for quality assurance measurements of the MPP.

[Deviant language development following cochlear implantation? Applicability of the parent questionnaire ELFRA-2]. / Abweichende Sprachentwicklung nach Cochleaimplantation? Zur Anwendbarkeit des Elternfragebogens ELFRA-2.

BACKGROUND: The parent questionnaire ELFRA-2 is considered a valid tool for early detection of delayed language development in 2-year-old children. Applicability for children treated with cochlear implants (CI) is to be investigated. METHODS: By means of the ELFRA-2 we documented longitudinally for up to 24 months post implantation language development in 27 children treated before 3 years of age. The critical developmental criteria (related to age) were applied to CI children (related to duration of CI use) and gender-related normative data were taken as a reference. RESULTS: Only two boys were identified as showing a language delay after 2 years of CI use. However, using normative data 11-44% of the children performed below average. Development in girls was faster than in boys. The influence of preoperative hearing experience declined over time. CONCLUSION: The critical developmental criteria of ELFRA-2 have proved to be unreliable for the identification of varying development after CI. Modified and gender-related evaluation is necessary.

[Do children with cochlear implants read or write differently?: literacy acquisition after cochlear implantation]. / Lesen und schreiben CI-Kinder anders?: Schriftspracherwerb nach Versorgung mit einem Cochlear implant.

BACKGROUND: Despite the fact that literacy acquisition in hearing impaired children is frequently hampered, reading and writing competences continue not to be regularly evaluated and documented in children fitted with cochlear implants (CI). In this 2-year longitudinal study literacy acquisition in children fitted with CI was investigated. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In total, 18 pre- and primary school children fitted with CI who had suffered prelingual deafness were examined. Subjects' ages at CI fitting ranged from 0.9 to 5.9 years; they were raised orally and monolingual German and showed normal intellectual achievement. Familial risk of developing dyslexia was ruled out. To assess subjects' literacy acquisition precursor and partial abilities in reading and writing according to dual route and developmental models were examined three times within 2 years. Precursor abilities included development of vocabulary and phonological awareness. Partial abilities were mastery in sublexical and lexical word processing in reading and writing as well as auditory and visual working memory. RESULTS: Subjects showed a broad range in performance regarding vocabulary development as well as literacy. Discrepant results in terms of age equivalent visual and underachievement in auditory working memory as well as good achievement in implicit phonological awareness and weakness in explicit demands on phoneme analysis and manipulation of phonemes can be described. Indications were that subjects tended towards lip reading the instructor's item presentation. Performance in the administered writing test reveals a preference for lexical word processing, whereas sublexical word processing seems to make relatively higher demands on subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Easier processing of visual information in partial and precursor abilities are consistent with a tendency to prefer a visual-lexical processing strategy. The presented study stresses the importance of generally assessing reading and writing skills when evaluating language development in children supplied with cochlear implants. Partial and precursor abilities should be included in order to identify any delay in development promptly. Thus, individual qualitative characteristics can be addressed in therapeutic intervention.

[Model oriented assessment of literacy performance in children with cochlear implants]. / Vorschläge zur modellgeleiteten Erhebung der Schriftsprachkompetenzen bei Schulkindern nach Cochlea Implantation - eine Pilotstudie.

BACKGROUND: Although most hearing-impaired children lag behind normally hearing children in literacy acquisition, this aspect has hardly been addressed in the evaluation of language acquisition after cochlear implantation. The present study investigated written language abilities in 8 school-age children with cochlear implants. Neurolinguistic dual-route-models of written language processing indicate that literacy acquisition leads to the establishment of two distinct reading and writing strategies: a lexical one for the quick processing of known words and a sublexical one for decoding unfamiliar words or nonwords letter by letter. PATIENTS: 8 school-aged children were investigated, a very heterogeneous group concerning age of onset of hearing impairment, educational placement, and competences in sign language. However, this range is typical of the group of CI-children. METHODS: The aim was to investigate if children with cochlear implants are able to establish both strategies or if they need to find a differential and individual access to written language. Performance within the Salzburger Lese-Rechtschreib-Test was evaluated. Individual performance of each subject was analysed. RESULTS: Performance varied substantially ranging from only rudimentary spoken and written language abilities in two children to age-equivalent performance in three of them. Severe qualitative differences in written language processing were shown in the remaining three subjects. Suggestions for remediation were made and a re-test was carried out after 12 months. Their individual profiles of performance are described in detail. CONCLUSIONS: The present study stresses the importance of a thorough investigation of written language performance in the evaluation of language acquisition after cochlear implantation. The results draw a very heterogeneous picture of performance. Model-oriented testing and analysis of performance prove to be sensible in at least a subpopulation of children with cochlear implants. Based on a better understanding of their acquired word-processing strategies, remediation programs meeting the needs of each individual child can be derived.