Partnerships with Primary Care for the Treatment of Preschoolers.

This article reviews mental health access issues relevant to preschool children and data on this population obtained through the Michigan Child Collaborative Care Program (MC3). The MC3 program provides telephonic consultation to primary care physicians (PCPs) in 40 counties in Michigan and video telepsychiatric consultation to patients and families. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and disruptive behavioral disorders are frequent initial presenting diagnoses, but autism spectrum disorders, parent-child relational issues, trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder should also be considered. Collaborative care programs provide promising ways to promote access to child psychiatric services when these services are distant to local PCP offices.

Predictive value and diagnostic accuracy of F-18-fluoro-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography treated grade 1 and 2 follicular lymphoma.

F-18-fluoro-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography (PET) is a powerful tool for the imaging of aggressive B-cell lymphomas. In contrast, there is relatively little data on PET in follicular lymphoma grade 1 (FL-1) and grade 2 (FL-2). In this manuscript, we present our findings utilizing PET in treated FL-1 and FL-2. A retrospective review of patients who underwent PET examinations at our institution produced 95 PET examinations among 31 patients with FL-1 and FL-2. PET was obtained at initial staging, mid-induction and post-treatment. Results were compared with clinical follow-up. PET had high sensitivity (95%) and specificity (88%) for lesion detection in treated FL-1 and FL-2. Abnormal foci in FL-1 and FL-2 had similar intensities. Post-induction PET positive patients had shorter mean progression free survivals compared with PET negative patients (p-value < or =0.001), post-salvage PET positive trended toward shorter mean response duration compared with negative patients (p-value: 0.09). Our results indicate that PET is accurate in the diagnostic assessment of treated FL-1 and FL-2 and, post-treatment PET positive patients are likely to relapse prior to PET negative patients.

Prevalence of severe hypovitaminosis D in patients with persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in primary care outpatients with persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain syndromes refractory to standard therapies. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 150 patients presented consecutively between February 2000 and June 2002 with persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain to the Community University Health Care Center, a university-affiliated inner city primary care clinic in Minneapolis, Minn (45 degrees north). Immigrant (n = 83) and nonimmigrant (n = 67) persons of both sexes, aged 10 to 65 years, from 6 broad ethnic groups were screened for vitamin D status. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were determined by radioimmunoassay. RESULTS: Of the African American, East African, Hispanic, and American Indian patients, 100% had deficient levels of vitamin D (< or = 20 ng/mL). Of all patients, 93% (140/ 150) had deficient levels of vitamin D (mean, 12.08 ng/mL; 95% confidence interval, 11.18-12.99 ng/mL). Nonimmigrants had vitamin D levels as deficient as immigrants (P = .48). Levels of vitamin D in men were as deficient as in women (P = .42). Of all patients, 28% (42/150) had severely deficient vitamin D levels (< or = 8 ng/mL), including 55% of whom were younger than 30 years. Five patients, 4 of whom were aged 35 years or younger, had vitamin D serum levels below the level of detection. The severity of deficiency was disproportionate by age for young women (P < .001), by sex for East African patients (P < .001), and by race for African American patients (P = .006). Season was not a significant factor in determining vitamin D serum levels (P = .06). CONCLUSION: All patients with persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain are at high risk for the consequences of unrecognized and untreated severe hypovitaminosis D. This risk extends to those considered at low risk for vitamin D deficiency: nonelderly, nonhousebound, or nonimmigrant persons of either sex. Nonimmigrant women of childbearing age with such pain appear to be at greatest risk for misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis. Because osteomalacia is a known cause of persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain, screening all outpatients with such pain for hypovitaminosis D should be standard practice in clinical care.