ABSTRACT
A shortage of board-certified developmental-behavioral pediatricians generates a bottleneck for children and families who seek autism diagnostic services. Wait time for autism evaluation commonly exceeds a year. To improve access, clinicians developed a coordinated Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics and Pediatric Neurology autism diagnostic pathway. For a subset of children referred to neurology clinic, pediatric neurologists completed the medical part of an autism evaluation and Knights of Columbus Developmental Center psychologists or speech-language pathologists completed developmental assessments. Forty-four autism diagnostic evaluations completed through this coordinated pathway over the course of six months had shortened wait time [mean=50.89 days; range 3 to 184 days; median= 48.50 day]. Parents reported satisfaction with the autism evaluation and resources navigation process. Sustainability and scalability efforts are discussed.
Subject(s)
Autistic Disorder , Neurology , Pediatrics , Humans , Child , Pediatrics/methods , Pediatrics/standards , Neurology/methods , Autistic Disorder/diagnosis , Child, Preschool , Male , Female , Health Services Accessibility/standards , AdolescentSubject(s)
Common Variable Immunodeficiency/blood , Interleukin-12/blood , Lung Diseases, Interstitial/blood , Receptors, Interleukin-2/blood , Adult , Azathioprine/therapeutic use , Biomarkers/blood , Common Variable Immunodeficiency/diagnostic imaging , Common Variable Immunodeficiency/drug therapy , Humans , Lung Diseases, Interstitial/diagnostic imaging , Lung Diseases, Interstitial/drug therapy , Male , Radiography , Rituximab/therapeutic use , Young AdultSubject(s)
Adrenal Gland Neoplasms/diagnosis , Encephalitis/diagnosis , Pericarditis/diagnosis , Pheochromocytoma/diagnosis , Adolescent , Adrenal Gland Neoplasms/complications , Ataxia/etiology , Child, Preschool , Confusion/etiology , Diagnosis, Differential , Dyspnea/etiology , Encephalitis/complications , Female , Humans , Hyperglycemia/etiology , Male , Pericardial Effusion/diagnosis , Pericarditis/complications , Pheochromocytoma/complications , Polyuria/etiologyABSTRACT
The authors present a case of "surfer's myelopathy," a rarely described syndrome characterized by nontraumatic paraparesis/paraplegia in novice surfers and theorized to result from spinal cord ischemia secondary to surfing-related positional hyperextension. Imaging and clinical course of the youngest known affected individual are discussed, including evidence of acute spinal cord infarction on diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging, a finding not previously described in the literature.
