Congenital hypothyroidism presenting as myxedema coma in a teenager.

Congenital hypothyroidism is rare and is screened for in the United States during the newborn period in order to prevent a treatable cognitive delay. Myxedema coma is a complication due to severe hypothyroidism resulting from failure of homeostatic processes, causing altered mental status, generalized edema, and vital sign abnormalities. Treatment of myxedema coma consists of supportive care and hormone replacement. We describe a case of congenital hypothyroidism presenting as myxedema coma in an immigrant teenager.

A Comparison of Teleburn to In-Person Consultation of Pediatric Patients in a Children's Emergency Department.

Pediatric burn care is an essential component of emergency care and there are disparities in access to regional burn centers. Teleburn is a tool that enables providers without a certified burn center to provide photos of a burn to experts and receive recommendations. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a Teleburn system to the in-person consultation regarding burn infection rate, clinic follow-up rate, postburn admission rate, and 72-h bounce back rate. Data were collected from December 2019 to March 2022 through the electronic medical record. A total of 416 patient encounters that met the criteria were analyzed. A non-inferiority study was designed comparing proportional outcomes of Teleburn initial visits to emergency department visits regarding burn infection rate, clinic follow-up rate, postburn admission rate, and 72-h bounce back rate. The data were compared with a difference of greater than 10% being considered inferior. No differences were identified in rates of readmission-1.67% difference (95% CI -27%< x < 23.8%) and return within 72 h-0.7% difference (-18.4%< x < 19.7%). Teleburn patients were 12.6% less likely to follow-up (2.7%< x < 22.40%). Only one infection was identified, which was insufficient to conclude non-inferiority. While convenient, Teleburn consult could not be demonstrated to be non-inferior to in-person consultation. No differences in infection rates were identified, and differences in readmission and return were clinically insignificant. This study demonstrates that Teleburn may be effective and feasible for regional burn centers if follow-up can be improved.

Reliability of the Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) for assessing non-technical skills of medical students in simulated scenarios.

PURPOSE: Caring for critically ill patients requires non-technical skills such as teamwork, communication, and task management. The Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) is a brief tool used to assess non-technical skills. The investigators determined inter- and intra-rater reliability of the BARS when used to assess medical students in simulated scenarios. METHOD: The investigators created simulation scenarios for medical students during their pediatric clerkship. Content experts reviewed video recordings of the simulations and assigned BARS scores for four performance components (Situational Awareness, Decision-Making, Communication, and Teamwork) for the leader and for the team as a whole. Krippendorff's alpha with ordinal difference was calculated to measure inter- and intra-rater reliability. RESULTS: Thirty medical students had recordings available for review. Inter- and intra-rater reliability for performance components were, respectively, Individual Situational Awareness (0.488, 0.638), Individual Decision-Making (0.529, 0.691), Individual Communication (0.347, 0.473), Individual Teamwork (0.414, 0.466), Team Situational Awareness (0.450, 0.593), Team Decision Making (0.423, 0.703), Team Communication (0.256, 0.517), and Team Teamwork (0.415, 0.490). CONCLUSIONS: The BARS demonstrated limited reliability when assessing medical students during their pediatric clerkship. Given the unique needs of this population, a modified or new objective scoring system for assessing non-technical skills may be needed for medical students.

Do perceptions of effective distractive driving public service announcements differ between adults and teens?

BACKGROUND: Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death and disability in teenagers. Graduated licensing laws, enforcement of a legal drinking age of 21 years, zero tolerance, and mandatory restraints have been successful in reducing crashes and fatalities. Media safety campaigns have been less successful. This study was designed to analyze whether perceived effectiveness of public service announcements (PSAs) differed between teens and adults. We hypothesized that adult-derived intent differs from teen perception. METHODS: High-school students attending an annual municipal student safety exposition were asked to rank order six PSAs that were previously judged by an almost all adult committee. Additionally, students were asked to rate the PSAs on an agreement Likert scale assessing interest, understandability, and believability and to indicate potential effect on driving behavior. Students further graded their agreement with 10 top-published driving distracters and were asked to list additional perceived driving distracters. RESULTS: Of the 330 surveys collected, 201 students aged 14 years to 19 years selected at least one choice and 181 ranked-ordered >1 PSA. The PSA #3 selected by the original adult judges was ranked second (33%) by teens with PSA #1 in first place (34%). PSA 1 was not considered as effective by the adult judges. Student age, race, grade, or gender did not produce statistically significant differences. A cohort of 186 teens responded to nationally noted driving distracters with >86% in agreement. Eating and applying cosmetics were additional distracters noted by students completing the survey. CONCLUSION: Preventative media messages should include teen stakeholder review. The components of effective adolescent safety messages continue to require further study.

Determination of galectin-3 messenger ribonucleic Acid overexpression in papillary thyroid cancer by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.

Galectin-3, a lectin-family protein that appears to be involved in malignant transformation, has been reported to be an accurate immunohistochemical marker for thyroid cancer. However, immunohistochemistry is a subjective method that can be difficult to apply to cytologic specimens. Therefore, we sought to develop an objective and quantitative assay to measure galectin-3 mRNA in thyroid tissue to enhance potential clinical use of galectin-3 in the molecular analysis of thyroid nodules. In this study, total RNA from 37 snap-frozen thyroid tissue specimens was isolated from eight papillary and nine follicular thyroid cancers, six follicular adenomas, seven adenomatoid nodules, and seven normal thyroid lobes from patients undergoing thyroidectomy. Normalized levels of galectin-3 mRNA, expressed as picograms per nanogram GAPDH mRNA, were higher in papillary carcinomas (3327 pg/ng) and follicular adenomas (1314 pg/ng) than in thyroid normal tissue (426 pg/ng; P = 0.0012 and 0.032, respectively). Galectin-3 mRNA levels were also higher in papillary cancers than in adenomatoid nodules (P = 0.0012). However, galectin-3 mRNA levels were not statistically greater in follicular carcinomas than either normal tissue or follicular adenomas (P = 0.068 and 0.12, respectively). In summary, in comparison to galectin-3 immunohistochemistry, quantitative measurement of galectin-3 mRNA appears useful in the identification of papillary thyroid cancers (PTCs) but does not appear to be useful in distinguishing follicular carcinomas from follicular adenomas.

The effect of methimazole on cure rates after radioiodine treatment for Graves' hyperthyroidism: a randomized clinical trial.

Forty-two newly diagnosed patients with Graves' hyperthyroidism were randomly assigned to receive 131I therapy after pretreatment with methimazole (21) or beta-blocker alone (21) and prospectively evaluated, to determine possible effects of methimazole on 131I treatment outcome. After randomization, 8 patients were excluded from the study (5 from pretreatment group and 3 from nonpretreatment group). Radioactive iodine (baseline dose 15 mCi, adjusted for goiter size and/or 131I uptake) was administered after pretreatment with methimazole (30 mg initial dose for at least 2 months and stopped 6 days before treatment) and beta-blocker or pretreatment with beta-blocker alone (atenolol 50-100 mg/d). All but one patient in each group became hypothyroid. A similar length of time was required by both groups to achieve hypothyroidism (112 days, [95% confidence interval [CI] = 28 to 196 days) in the pretreated group and 106 days, [95% CI = 45 to 167 days] in nonpretreated patients). Free thyroxine (T4) normalized 44 +/- 39 days after therapy in the nonpretreated group and 35 +/- 30 days in the pretreated group (p = 0.57) and decreased to subnormal levels 80 +/- 70 days in nonpretreated and 65 +/- 32 days in pretreated patients (p = 0.46). We conclude that pretreating patients with methimazole before radioactive iodine therapy does not interfere with the final outcome. Similar cure rates and time required to achieve hypothyroidism after radioiodine were observed when patients were pretreated with methimazole compared to nonpretreated patients.

Thyroid cancer yield in patients with Graves' disease selected for surgery on the basis of cold scintiscan defects.

Previous studies have suggested that thyroid nodules found in patients with Graves' disease (GD) have a higher likelihood of being malignant, and that thyroid cancer behaves more aggressively when associated with GD, although both of these assertions remain controversial. The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency of cold scintiscan (SC) defects in patients with GD, and to determine the prevalence of thyroid cancer in such patients. Our secondary objective was to determine if there are any risk factors for developing cold defects by comparing clinical characteristics of both GD patients with cold SC defects and age and gender-matched GD patients without cold defects. We included in this analysis patients with a confirmed diagnosis of GD for whom SC results and adequate follow-up information were available. Clinic records were available in 772 patients with GD. Of these, 325 patients met eligibility criteria. Cold defects were found in 39 of 325 (12.0%) patients. Among these, 22 (56.4%) were referred for surgery, of whom 6 (1.85% of all GD patients, 15.2% of GD patients with cold nodules, 25% of GD patients with palpable nodules, and 27.3% of those undergoing surgery) had papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) in the location corresponding to the SC defect. In 2 PTC patients, no palpable abnormality corresponded to the cold defect found to contain cancer at surgery. One PTC patient was found to have metastatic disease to bone, and 2 additional PTC patients required multiple therapies with radioiodine. Compared to age and gender-matched control patients with GD and without cold SC defects, there were no differences in radioactive iodine uptake (RAIU), goiter size, duration of disease, degree of elevation in microsomal antibody (MA) titers, or thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulin (TSI). We conclude that thyroid scintigraphy is an important preliminary test in the evaluation of patients with GD, and that the prevalence of thyroid cancer in the location corresponding to a focal cold SC defect provides justification for further diagnostic evaluation or surgical management.