Psychometric Properties of the Parent Cognition Scale in a Clinical Sample of Parents of Children With Disruptive Behavior.

The Parent Cognition Scale (PCS; Snarr, Slep, & Grande, 2009) is a self-report measure of parental attributions of child behavior that has demonstrated validity in community samples. However, its psychometric properties have not been examined in a clinical sample of parents of children with disruptive behavior. Examining the psychometric properties of the PCS in this population is important given research linking parent attribution with childhood disruptive behavior. The present study aimed to: (a) examine the psychometric properties of the PCS in a sample of parents whose children were clinic-referred for disruptive behavior problems; and (b) investigate the concurrent validity of the PCS and its factors using correlations with parent reports of children's emotional and behavioral difficulties, and parenting skills (i.e., discipline, supervision). A confirmatory factor analysis was run on 225 parents' responses on the PCS, and revealed that a two-factor structure of the PCS fit the data well. Significant correlations were found between Parent Causal Attributions (Factor 1) and parent-reported parenting difficulties. Child Responsible Attributions (Factor 2) were correlated with elevations in children's emotion, attention, and conduct difficulties. The results provide information on the utility of the PCS for parents of children with disruptive behavior and its potential clinical relevance.

Enhanced Recruitment During Executive Control Processing in Cognitively Preserved Patients With Pediatric-Onset MS.

OBJECTIVES: Youth and young adults with pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (MS) are vulnerable to executive dysfunction; however, some patients do not demonstrate functional deficits despite showing abnormalities on structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Cognitively intact adults with MS have shown enhanced activation patterns relative to healthy controls on working memory tasks. We aim to evaluate whether cognitively preserved pediatric-onset MS patients engage compensatory recruitment strategies to facilitate age-normative performance on a task of working memory. METHODS: Twenty cognitively preserved patients (mean age=18.7±2.7 years; 15 female) and 20 age- and sex-matched controls (mean age=18.5±2.9 years; 15 female) underwent neuropsychological testing and 3.0 Tesla MRI, including structural and functional acquisitions. Patterns of activation during the Alphaspan task, a working memory paradigm with two levels of executive control demand, were examined via whole-brain and region of interest (ROI) analyses. RESULTS: Across all participants, lower accuracy and greater activation of regions implicated in working memory were observed during the high demand condition. MS patients demonstrated 0.21 s longer response time than controls. ROI analyses revealed enhanced activation for pediatric-onset MS patients relative to controls in the right middle frontal, left paracingulate, right supramarginal, and left superior parietal gyri during the low executive demand condition, over and above differences in response time. MS patients also demonstrated heightened activation in the right supramarginal gyrus in the high executive demand condition. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that pediatric-onset MS patients may engage compensatory recruitment strategies during working memory processing. (JINS, 2019, 25, 432-442).

Casting Is Effective for Recurrence Following Ponseti Treatment of Clubfoot.

BACKGROUND: Up to 40% of patients with idiopathic clubfoot who are treated with the Ponseti method experience recurrence of deformity. Many of these patients receive surgery (e.g., anterior tibial tendon transfer). An alternative approach for recurrent clubfoot is repeat Ponseti casting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcome of repeat Ponseti casting in the treatment of recurrent clubfoot. METHODS: Patients with recurrent idiopathic clubfoot who were treated at our hospital, between 2004 and 2012, with repeat serial casting and bracing (the recurrent group) were eligible for inclusion in the study. The recurrent group and a control group of randomly selected patients seen during the same period who had not had recurrence were compared with respect to demographic data, age at the time of treatment, number of casts, subsequent surgical intervention(s), and the Disease-Specific Instrument (DSI) clubfoot scale. Patients were deemed to have a successful outcome if they had a well-corrected foot (defined as dorsiflexion of ≥10°, hindfoot in valgus, and a straight lateral border) at the time of follow-up. RESULTS: Of a total of 71 eligible patients with clubfeet, 35 patients participated. At the time of follow-up, success rates were 74% for the recurrent group and 83% for the control group. Dorsiflexion past neutral was significantly higher in the control group than the patient group (20° versus 12°, respectively; p < 0.001). Ninety-five percent of the control subjects had a straight lateral border in comparison with 78% in the recurrent group (p = 0.004). Likewise, 97% of controls had the hindfoot in valgus in comparison with 80% of the recurrent group (p = 0.02). There was a significant difference in the ability to squat (76% in the control group and 43% in the recurrent group; p = 0.03). There was no difference between groups in the total outcome of the DSI. CONCLUSIONS: Recurrence was seen in 19% (71) of 382 children who were eligible for our study who were typically discharged after the age of 5 years from our clinic, indicating the importance of continued follow-up until after that age. Treatment with casting was successful in many patients and may be a reasonable choice for recurrent idiopathic clubfeet. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Improving education and coping of scoliosis patients undergoing surgery, and their families, using e-health.

PURPOSE: Healthcare providers have limited time to spend with scoliosis patients who are considering surgery and their families. The purpose of this study was to evaluate an e-health strategy to increase knowledge and coping in patients with scoliosis who are surgical candidates and their families. METHODS: We enrolled patients with scoliosis who were candidates for surgery and their families. Patients and their families completed the scoliosis knowledge questionnaire, meaning of illness questionnaire, social support and coping questionnaires before and after access to a comprehensive evidence-based scoliosis website ( http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/scoliosis ). RESULTS: Seventy-four patients and 71 parents completed the evaluation. While both patients and parents improved their knowledge of scoliosis (p = 0.001 and p = 0.003, respectively), the scores of patients were consistently lower than those of the parents both before and after website use (p = 0.0001). Only parents demonstrated a change in the meaning of illness questionnaire, with a small increase in the negative attitude towards illness and a small decrease in the positive attitude towards illness (p = 0002 and p = 0.01, respectively). Of the 12 coping methods examined on the Adolescent Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences (A-COPE) instrument, patients were slightly more likely than parents to use relaxing and solving family problems as tools to cope following website access (p = 0.02 and p = 0.09, respectively). Parents demonstrated no significant changes in the four methods of coping on the Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP) after website exposure. While the majority of patients and parents reported receiving sufficient support, over half of the patients indicated a need for more support in social participation. CONCLUSION: An evidence-based website increased the knowledge of patients and parents but simply providing access to the website had minimal impact on their coping and perceptions of social support. The website, however, provides users with the opportunity to absorb vital information about scoliosis across several media.

Altered resting-state functional connectivity in cognitively preserved pediatric-onset MS patients and relationship to structural damage and cognitive performance.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate resting-state functional connectivity (FC) and relationship to brain volumes and cognition in a sample of cognitively preserved pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. METHODS: Sixteen cognitively intact pediatric-onset MS patients and 15 healthy age- and sex-matched controls underwent cognitive testing and 3T anatomical and functional MRI. Resting-state FC patterns were examined using region-of-interest-based timeseries correlations. RESULTS: Compared to controls, pediatric-onset MS patients demonstrated higher FC of the precuneus, particularly with the anterior cingulate cortex (z=4.21, p<.001), frontal medial cortex (z=3.48, p<.001), and cerebellum (z=3.72, p<.001). Greater T2 lesion volume and lower normalized thalamic volume were associated with reduced FC of the thalamus, especially for FC with the right superior occipital region (t=-2.87, p=.0123 and t=2.27, p=.04 respectively). FC of the left frontal medial cortex was negatively correlated with composite cognitive z-score in the pediatric-onset MS group (p<.05). CONCLUSIONS: Greater resting-state FC between posterior and anterior brain regions is present in pediatric-onset MS. With greater disease-related structural pathology, there is a disruption of thalamo-cortical FC. In the absence of actual cognitive impairment, heightened FC of the frontal medial cortex was associated with lower cognitive performance, suggesting that greater functional resources are recruited during resting-state in patients with reduced cognitive efficiency.

Brain activation patterns and cognitive processing speed in patients with pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the extent and pattern of brain activation elicited by a functional magnetic resonance imaging version of the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (fMRI-SDMT), a task of information processing speed, in pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (MS) patients as compared to sex- and age-matched non-MS self-reported healthy individuals. METHOD: Participants included 20 right-handed individuals aged 13-24 years with pediatric-onset MS (mean age = 19 years, 15 female) and 16 non-MS self-reported healthy individuals. All participants underwent a 3.0-tesla MRI scan with structural (T1; T2; proton density, PD; fluid-attenuated inversion recovery, FLAIR) and fMRI-SDMT acquisition. Participants were instructed to indicate with a button press whether a single pairing of a symbol to a number matched any of those shown in a key that displays nine possible pairings. RESULTS: Response time (p = .909) and accuracy (p = .832) on the fMRI-SDMT did not differ between groups. However, the MS group demonstrated lower overall activation than the non-MS group in the right middle frontal gyrus (p = .003). Within the MS group, faster response time was associated with greater activation of the right inferior occipital, anterior cingulate, right superior parietal, thalamus, and left superior occipital cortices (all p < .05). A significant interaction effect was demonstrated, indicating that faster response time was associated with greater activation of the left superior occipital region in the pediatric MS group than in the non-MS group (p = .002). CONCLUSIONS: Attenuated activation of frontal regions was observed in this cohort of pediatric-onset MS patients when performing the fMRI-SDMT, even in the absence of behaviorally detectable deficits. Within the MS group only, faster response time elicited greater activation, suggesting this to be an adaptive mechanism that may contribute to limiting the impact of disease-related structural pathology.

Outcomes of infection following pediatric spinal fusion.

BACKGROUND: Removal of instrumentation is often recommended as part of treatment for spinal infections, but studies have reported eradication of infection even with instrumentation retention by using serial débridements and adjuvant antibiotic pharmacotherapy. We sought to determine the effect of instrumentation retention or removal on outcomes in children with spinal infections. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the cases of patients who experienced early (< 3 mo) or late (≥ 3 mo) infected spinal fusions. Patients were evaluated at least 2 years after eradication of the infection using the following protocol outcomes: follow-up Cobb angle, curve progression and nonunion rates. RESULTS: Our sample included 35 patients. The mean age at surgery was 15.1 ± 6.0 years, 65.7% were girls, and mean follow-up was 41.7 ± 26.9 months. The mean Cobb angle was 63.6° ± 14.5° preoperatively, 29.4° ± 16.5° immediately after surgery and 37.2° ± 19.6° at follow-up. Patients in the implant removal group (n = 21) were more likely than those in the implant retention group (n = 14) to have a lower ASA score (71.4% v. 28.6%, p = 0.03), fewer comorbidities (66.7% v. 21.4%, p = 0.03), late infections (81.0% v. 14.3%, p = 0.01) and deep infections (95.2% v. 64.3%, p = 0.03). Implants were retained in 12 of 16 (75.0%) patients with early infections and 2 of 19 (10.5%) with late infections. Patients with implant removal had a higher pseudarthrosis rate (38.1% v. 0%, p = 0.02) and a faster curve progression rate (5.8 ± 9.8° per year v. 0.2 ± 4.7° per year, p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: Implant retention should be considered, irrespective of the timing or depth of the infection.

CONTEXTE: Le retrait des implants est souvent recommandé lors du traitement des infections rachidiennes, mais des études ont démontré qu'il est possible d'éliminer les infections tout en maintenant les implants en place, en ayant recours à des débridements répétés et à une antibiothérapie adjuvante. Nous avons voulu mesurer l'effet de la préservation ou du retrait des implants sur les résultats chez les enfants souffrant d'infections rachidiennes. MÉTHODES: Nous avons passé en revue de manière rétrospective des cas de fusions rachidiennes infectées à un stade précoce (< 3 mois) ou tardif (≥ 3 mois). Les patients ont été évalués au moins 2 ans après l'éradication de l'infection à l'aide des paramètres suivants : angle de Cobb, progression de la courbure et taux de non fusion au moment du suivi. RÉSULTANTS: Notre échantillon comprenait 35 patients. L'âge moyen au moment de la chirurgie était de 15,1 ± 6,0 ans; 65,7 % étaient des filles et le suivi moyen s'est échelonné sur 41,7 ± 26,9 mois. L'angle de Cobb moyen était de 63,6 ° ± 14,5 ° en période préopératoire, de 29,4 ° ± 16,5 ° immédiatement après la chirurgie et de 37,2 ° ± 19,6 ° au moment du suivi. Les patients du groupe soumis au retrait de l'implant (n = 21) étaient plus susceptibles que les patients du groupe chez qui l'implant est demeuré en place (n = 14) de présenter un score ASA plus bas (71,4 % c. 28,6 %, p = 0,03) et un nombre moindre de comorbidités (66,7 % c. 21,4 %, p = 0,03), d'infections tardives (81,0 % c. 14,3 %, p = 0,01) et d'infections profondes (95,2 % c. 64,3 %, p = 0,03). Les implants sont demeurés en place chez 12 patients sur 16 (75,0 %) atteints d'infections précoces et chez 2 patients sur 19 (10,5 %) atteints d'infections tardives. Les patients chez qui l'implant a été retiré ont présenté un taux plus élevé de pseudarthrose (38,1 % c. 0 %, p = 0,02) et un taux de progression plus rapide de la courbure (5,8 ± 9,8 ° par année c. 0,2 ± 4,7 ° par année, p = 0,04). CONCLUSION: Il y a lieu d'envisager le maintien des implants, indépendamment du moment d'apparition de l'infection et de sa profondeur.

Outcomes of infection following pediatric spinal fusion.

BACKGROUND: Removal of instrumentation is often recommended as part of treatment for spinal infections, but studies have reported eradication of infection even with instrumentation retention by using serial débridements and adjuvant antibiotic pharmacotherapy. We sought to determine the effect of instrumentation retention or removal on outcomes in children with spinal infections. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the cases of patients who experienced early (< 3 mo) or late (≥ 3 mo) infected spinal fusions. Patients were evaluated at least 2 years after eradication of the infection using the following protocol outcomes: follow-up Cobb angle, curve progression and nonunion rates. RESULTS: Our sample included 35 patients. The mean age at surgery was 15.1 ± 6.0 years, 65.7% were girls, and mean follow-up was 41.7 ± 26.9 months. The mean Cobb angle was 63.6° ± 14.5° preoperatively, 29.4° ± 16.5° immediately after surgery and 37.2° ± 19.6° at follow-up. Patients in the implant removal group (n = 21) were more likely than those in the implant retention group (n = 14) to have a lower ASA score (71.4% v. 28.6%, p = 0.03), fewer comorbidities (66.7% v. 21.4%, p = 0.03), late infections (81.0% v. 14.3%, p = 0.01) and deep infections (95.2% v. 64.3%, p = 0.03). Implants were retained in 12 of 16 (75.0%) patients with early infections and 2 of 19 (10.5%) with late infections. Patients with implant removal had a higher pseudarthrosis rate (38.1% v. 0%, p = 0.02) and a faster curve progression rate (5.8 ± 9.8° per year v. 0.2 ± 4.7° per year, p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: Implant retention should be considered, irrespective of the timing or depth of the infection.

CONTEXTE: Le retrait des implants est souvent recommandé lors du traitement des infections rachidiennes, mais des études ont démontré qu'il est possible d'éliminer les infections tout en maintenant les implants en place, en ayant recours à des débridements répétés et à une antibiothérapie adjuvante. Nous avons voulu mesurer l'effet de la préservation ou du retrait des implants sur les résultats chez les enfants souffrant d'infections rachidiennes. MÉTHODES: Nous avons passé en revue de manière rétrospective des cas de fusions rachidiennes infectées à un stade précoce (< 3 mois) ou tardif (≥ 3 mois). Les patients ont été évalués au moins 2 ans après l'éradication de l'infection à l'aide des paramètres suivants : angle de Cobb, progression de la courbure et taux de non fusion au moment du suivi. RÉSULTANTS: Notre échantillon comprenait 35 patients. L'âge moyen au moment de la chirurgie était de 15,1 ± 6,0 ans; 65,7 % étaient des filles et le suivi moyen s'est échelonné sur 41,7 ± 26,9 mois. L'angle de Cobb moyen était de 63,6 ° ± 14,5 ° en période préopératoire, de 29,4 ° ± 16,5 ° immédiatement après la chirurgie et de 37,2 ° ± 19,6 ° au moment du suivi. Les patients du groupe soumis au retrait de l'implant (n = 21) étaient plus susceptibles que les patients du groupe chez qui l'implant est demeuré en place (n = 14) de présenter un score ASA plus bas (71,4 % c. 28,6 %, p = 0,03) et un nombre moindre de comorbidités (66,7 % c. 21,4 %, p = 0,03), d'infections tardives (81,0 % c. 14,3 %, p = 0,01) et d'infections profondes (95,2 % c. 64,3 %, p = 0,03). Les implants sont demeurés en place chez 12 patients sur 16 (75,0 %) atteints d'infections précoces et chez 2 patients sur 19 (10,5 %) atteints d'infections tardives. Les patients chez qui l'implant a été retiré ont présenté un taux plus élevé de pseudarthrose (38,1 % c. 0 %, p = 0,02) et un taux de progression plus rapide de la courbure (5,8 ± 9,8 ° par année c. 0,2 ± 4,7 ° par année, p = 0,04). CONCLUSION: Il y a lieu d'envisager le maintien des implants, indépendamment du moment d'apparition de l'infection et de sa profondeur.