Pediatric primary lymphoma of bone in epiphysis case report.

Primary lymphoma of the bone (PLB) is a rare entity, with a majority of pediatric cases presenting in the metaphysis of long bones. There have been only seven reported cases to date of pediatric lymphoma of the bone arising from the epiphysis, of which only two have been described in the proximal tibia. We report a pediatric case of PLB in the tibial epiphysis which presented initially with knee pain. Imaging was performed with X-ray, MRI, CT, and PET-CT with bone biopsies revealing diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. This patient also showed a second, synchronous lesion in the left iliac bone, which was also biopsy proven to diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Lymphoma in the epiphysis for children is rare and often confused with infectious etiologies or other types of tumors. Misdiagnosis may result in inappropriate treatment and possible progression of the disease, thus making early identification important to initiate therapy.

Neonatal neurosonography practices: a survey of active Society for Pediatric Radiology members.

BACKGROUND: While neonatal brain US is emerging as an imaging modality with greater portability, widespread availability and relative lower cost compared to MRI, it is unknown whether US is being maximized in infants to increase sensitivity in detecting intracranial pathology related to common indications such as hemorrhage, ischemia and ventriculomegaly. OBJECTIVE: To survey active members of the Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR) regarding their utilization of various cranial US techniques and reporting practices in neonates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We distributed an online 10-question survey to SPR members to assess practice patterns of neonatal cranial US including protocol details, use of additional sonographic views, perceived utility of spectral Doppler evaluation, and germinal matrix hemorrhage and ventricular size reporting preferences. RESULTS: Of the 107 institutions represented, 90% of respondents were split evenly between free-standing children's hospitals and pediatric departments attached to a general hospital. We found that most used template reporting (72/107, 67%). The anterior fontanelle approach was standard practice (107/107, 100%). We found that posterior fontanelle views (72% sometimes, rarely or never) and high-frequency linear probes to evaluate far-field structures (52% sometimes, rarely or never) were seldom used. Results revealed a range of ways to report germinal matrix hemorrhage and measure ventricular indices to assess ventricular dilatation. There was substantial intra-institutional protocol and reporting variability as well. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate high variability in neurosonography practice and reporting among active SPR members, aside from the anterior fontanelle views, template reporting and linear high-resolution near-field evaluation. Standardization of reporting germinal matrix hemorrhage and ventricular size would help ensure a more consistent application of neonatal US in research and clinical practice.

Pediatric chest wall masses: spectrum of benign findings on ultrasound.

A palpable finding along the chest wall is a frequent indication for pediatric US. Accurate identification of benign lesions can reassure families and appropriately triage children who need follow-up, cross-sectional imaging, or biopsy. In this pictorial essay, we review chest wall anatomy, illustrate US techniques and discuss key US imaging features of common benign lesions and normal variants.

Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction Among Youth with Obesity and History of Elevated Blood Pressure.

OBJECTIVE: To assess prevalence of and factors associated with left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) in youth with obesity and elevated blood pressure (BP). STUDY DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional analysis of baseline and follow-up visits of 83 youth, 5-21 years, evaluated for overweight/obesity and elevated BP in a multidisciplinary clinic. LVDD was defined according to established adult criteria (LVDDadult; E/A < 1, E/e' > 14, or e'/a' < 0.8) and pediatric criteria (LVDDpeds; E/A <10th percentile, E/e' >99th percentile, or e'/a' <1st percentile) based on data from 103 age-sex matched healthy controls. Baseline factors associated with LVDDpeds were examined using Wilcoxon rank sum and χ2 tests. Multiple logistic regression analyses using generalized estimating equations to account for repeated measures evaluated the associations of adiposity and BP with LVDDpeds. RESULTS: The prevalence of LVDD ranged from 1.2% to 2.7% when we used adult criteria and 19% to 28% when we used pediatric criteria. Those with LVDDpeds were older, predominantly male, and non-African American and had greater weight, BP, BP medication use, and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol than those without LVDDpeds. Diastolic BP z score was associated with LVDDpeds by E/A (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.15-3.32, P = .014) after we adjusted for age, sex, race, BP medications, and body mass index z score. CONCLUSIONS: LVDD was present in a substantial proportion of youth with overweight/obesity and elevated BP using pediatric criteria. Those with LVDDpeds had significantly greater measures of adiposity and BP compared with those without LVDDpeds, and diastolic BP z score was an independent predictor of LVDDpeds by E/A. These data emphasize the importance of prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease risk factors in childhood.

Clinical Decision Support for the Diagnosis and Management of Adult and Pediatric Hypertension.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review literature from 2016 to 2019 on clinical decision support (CDS) for diagnosis and management of hypertension in children and adults. RECENT FINDINGS: Ten studies described hypertension CDS systems. Novel advances included the integration of patient-collected blood pressure data, automated information retrieval and management support, and use of CDS in low-resource/developing-world settings and in pediatrics. Findings suggest that CDS increases hypertension detection/control, yet many children and adults with hypertension remain undetected or undercontrolled. CDS challenges included poor usability (from lack of health record integration, excessive data entry requests, and wireless connectivity challenges) and lack of clinician trust in blood pressure measures. Hypertension CDS has improved but not closed gaps in the detection and control of hypertension in children and adults. The studies reviewed indicate that the usability of CDS and the system where CDS is deployed (e.g., commitment to high-quality blood pressure measurement/infrastructure) may impact CDS's ability to increase hypertension detection and control.

Pediatric ankle injuries: utilizing the Dias-Tachdjian classification.

Pediatric ankle injuries require timely diagnosis due to their involvement of the distal tibial physis and subsequent impact on long bone growth. These injuries occur in a predictable pattern based on ankle position, direction of force, and degree of closure of the distal tibial physis. The Dias-Tachdjian classification describes possible ankle injury patterns for the completely open physis, and we present a simplified algorithm for applying this system in routine radiographic interpretation. Similar to the Lauge-Hansen classification in adults, the Dias-Tachdjian system is based on the position of the foot and direction of force at the time of injury with four major patterns: supination-inversion, pronation-eversion external rotation, supination-plantar flexion, and supination-external rotation. In addition, we examine the effect that the closing distal tibial physis has on adolescent fracture patterns (specifically, Tillaux and triplane fractures). Awareness of these injury patterns helps the radiologist to identify nondisplaced fractures and subtle physeal injuries with implications for surgical and/or conservative management.

Childhood and Adolescent Adversity and Cardiometabolic Outcomes: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

Adverse experiences in childhood and adolescence, defined as subjectively perceived threats to the safety or security of the child's bodily integrity, family, or social structures, are known to be associated with cardiometabolic outcomes over the life course into adulthood. This American Heart Association scientific statement reviews the scientific literature on the influence of childhood adversity on cardiometabolic outcomes that constitute the greatest public health burden in the United States, including obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease. This statement also conceptually outlines pathways linking adversity to cardiometabolic health, identifies evidence gaps, and provides suggestions for future research to inform practice and policy. We note that, despite a lack of objective agreement on what subjectively qualifies as exposure to childhood adversity and a dearth of prospective studies, substantial evidence documents an association between childhood adversity and cardiometabolic outcomes across the life course. Future studies that focus on mechanisms, resiliency, and vulnerability factors would further strengthen the evidence and provide much-needed information on targets for effective interventions. Given that childhood adversities affect cardiometabolic health and multiple health domains across the life course, interventions that ameliorate these initial upstream exposures may be more appropriate than interventions remediating downstream cardiovascular disease risk factor effects later in life.

Progressive pseudorheumatoid dysplasia: a report of three cases and a review of radiographic and magnetic resonance imaging findings.

Progressive pseudorheumatoid dysplasia (PPD) is a rare disorder of postnatal skeletal and cartilage development that often presents with similar clinical findings to juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Patients with PPD display findings of progressive cartilage loss and secondary osteoarthritis over serial imaging studies and have an absence of elevation of inflammatory markers. Awareness of the imaging features of PPD on radiographs and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be important for early diagnosis and surveillance of the disease.

Deep venous thrombosis in a child with inferior vena cava and renal anomalies: KILT syndrome.

Kidney and inferior vena cava abnormalities with leg thrombosis is a newly described entity in the literature termed KILT (kidney and inferior vena cava (IVC) abnormalities with leg thrombosis) syndrome. We present a case of newly diagnosed KILT syndrome in an 11-year-old girl presenting with pain and problems with ambulation. We also review the few cases of KILT syndrome previously reported in the literature.

Evidence for Astrophysical Muon Neutrinos from the Northern Sky with IceCube.

Results from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory have recently provided compelling evidence for the existence of a high energy astrophysical neutrino flux utilizing a dominantly Southern Hemisphere data set consisting primarily of ν(e) and ν(τ) charged-current and neutral-current (cascade) neutrino interactions. In the analysis presented here, a data sample of approximately 35,000 muon neutrinos from the Northern sky is extracted from data taken during 659.5 days of live time recorded between May 2010 and May 2012. While this sample is composed primarily of neutrinos produced by cosmic ray interactions in Earth's atmosphere, the highest energy events are inconsistent with a hypothesis of solely terrestrial origin at 3.7σ significance. These neutrinos can, however, be explained by an astrophysical flux per neutrino flavor at a level of Φ(E(ν))=9.9(-3.4)(+3.9)×10(-19) GeV(-1) cm(-2) sr(-1) s(-1)(E(ν)/100 TeV(-2), consistent with IceCube's Southern-Hemisphere-dominated result. Additionally, a fit for an astrophysical flux with an arbitrary spectral index is performed. We find a spectral index of 2.2(-0.2)(+0.2), which is also in good agreement with the Southern Hemisphere result.

Flavor Ratio of Astrophysical Neutrinos above 35 TeV in IceCube.

A diffuse flux of astrophysical neutrinos above 100 TeV has been observed at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Here we extend this analysis to probe the astrophysical flux down to 35 TeV and analyze its flavor composition by classifying events as showers or tracks. Taking advantage of lower atmospheric backgrounds for showerlike events, we obtain a shower-biased sample containing 129 showers and 8 tracks collected in three years from 2010 to 2013. We demonstrate consistency with the (fe:fµ:fτ)⊕≈(1:1:1)⊕ flavor ratio at Earth commonly expected from the averaged oscillations of neutrinos produced by pion decay in distant astrophysical sources. Limits are placed on nonstandard flavor compositions that cannot be produced by averaged neutrino oscillations but could arise in exotic physics scenarios. A maximally tracklike composition of (0:1:0)⊕ is excluded at 3.3σ, and a purely showerlike composition of (1:0:0)⊕ is excluded at 2.3σ.

Sonographic evaluation of common peroneal neuropathy in patients with foot drop.

The common peroneal nerve arises from the sciatic nerve and is subject to a variety of abnormalities. Although diagnosis is often is based on the clinical findings and electrodiagnostic tests, high-resolution sonography has an increasing role in determining the type and location of common peroneal nerve abnormalities and other peripheral nerve disorders. This article reviews the normal sonographic appearance of the common peroneal nerve and the findings in 21 patients with foot drop related to common peroneal neuropathy.

Observation of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos in three years of IceCube data.

A search for high-energy neutrinos interacting within the IceCube detector between 2010 and 2012 provided the first evidence for a high-energy neutrino flux of extraterrestrial origin. Results from an analysis using the same methods with a third year (2012-2013) of data from the complete IceCube detector are consistent with the previously reported astrophysical flux in the 100 TeV-PeV range at the level of 10(-8) GeV cm-2 s-1 sr-1 per flavor and reject a purely atmospheric explanation for the combined three-year data at 5.7σ. The data are consistent with expectations for equal fluxes of all three neutrino flavors and with isotropic arrival directions, suggesting either numerous or spatially extended sources. The three-year data set, with a live time of 988 days, contains a total of 37 neutrino candidate events with deposited energies ranging from 30 to 2000 TeV. The 2000-TeV event is the highest-energy neutrino interaction ever observed.

Imaging features, classification and clinical features of intrahepatic congenital portosystemic shunts.

Congenital portosystemic shunts (CPSS) are a rare developmental anomaly diverting blood flow from the portal venous system and the liver to the systemic venous system. This case series examines the sonographic imaging findings, shunt classification, ultrasound shunt ratios, and outcomes in nine children (5 females, 4 males) admitted to our institution between 2015 and 2022 were included in this study. The shunts were initially categorized by the Parks classification and were followed by serial ultrasounds. Clinical presentation, clinical course, laboratory data, shunt ratios, and time to shunt closure were all followed on subsequent ultrasounds. The most common type of CPPS was the Type 3 shunt. In cases where shunt ratios were measured, the shunt ratio gradually decreased in tandem with decreasing ammonia levels until spontaneous closure was achieved. Predictors of lack of shunt closure included high shunt ratios and Type 4 shunts. Patients with CPPS can be followed with the shunt ratio calculation obtained from sonographic imaging, which may correlate to ammonia levels and indicate risk of hepatic encephalopathy as well as predict speed and timing of closure.

Alterations in the molecular control of mitochondrial turnover in COPD lung and airway epithelial cells.

Abnormal mitochondria have been observed in bronchial- and alveolar epithelial cells of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, it is unknown if alterations in the molecular pathways regulating mitochondrial turnover (mitochondrial biogenesis vs mitophagy) are involved. Therefore, in this study, the abundance of key molecules controlling mitochondrial turnover were assessed in peripheral lung tissue from non-COPD patients (n = 6) and COPD patients (n = 11; GOLDII n = 4/11; GOLDIV n = 7/11) and in both undifferentiated and differentiated human primary bronchial epithelial cells (PBEC) from non-COPD patients and COPD patients (n = 4-7 patients/group). We observed significantly decreased transcript levels of key molecules controlling mitochondrial biogenesis (PPARGC1B, PPRC1, PPARD) in peripheral lung tissue from severe COPD patients. Interestingly, mRNA levels of the transcription factor TFAM (mitochondrial biogenesis) and BNIP3L (mitophagy) were increased in these patients. In general, these alterations were not recapitulated in undifferentiated and differentiated PBECs with the exception of decreased PPARGC1B expression in both PBEC models. Although these findings provide valuable insight in these pathways in bronchial epithelial cells and peripheral lung tissue of COPD patients, whether or not these alterations contribute to COPD pathogenesis, underlie changes in mitochondrial function or may represent compensatory mechanisms remains to be established.

Search for dark matter annihilations in the sun with the 79-string IceCube detector.

We have performed a search for muon neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the center of the Sun with the 79-string configuration of the IceCube neutrino telescope. For the first time, the DeepCore subarray is included in the analysis, lowering the energy threshold and extending the search to the austral summer. The 317 days of data collected between June 2010 and May 2011 are consistent with the expected background from atmospheric muons and neutrinos. Upper limits are set on the dark matter annihilation rate, with conversions to limits on spin-dependent and spin-independent scattering cross sections of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) on protons, for WIMP masses in the range 20-5000 GeV/c2. These are the most stringent spin-dependent WIMP-proton cross section limits to date above 35 GeV/c2 for most WIMP models.

Measurement of atmospheric neutrino oscillations with IceCube.

We present the first statistically significant detection of neutrino oscillations in the high-energy regime (>20 GeV) from an analysis of IceCube Neutrino Observatory data collected in 2010 and 2011. This measurement is made possible by the low-energy threshold of the DeepCore detector (~20 GeV) and benefits from the use of the IceCube detector as a veto against cosmic-ray-induced muon background. The oscillation signal was detected within a low-energy muon neutrino sample (20-100 GeV) extracted from data collected by DeepCore. A high-energy muon neutrino sample (100 GeV-10 TeV) was extracted from IceCube data to constrain systematic uncertainties. The disappearance of low-energy upward-going muon neutrinos was observed, and the nonoscillation hypothesis is rejected with more than 5σ significance. In a two-neutrino flavor formalism, our data are best described by the atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters |Δm(32)(2)|=(2.3(-0.5)(+0.6))×10(-3) eV(2) and sin(2)(2θ(23))>0.93, and maximum mixing is favored.

First observation of PeV-energy neutrinos with IceCube.

We report on the observation of two neutrino-induced events which have an estimated deposited energy in the IceCube detector of 1.04±0.16 and 1.14±0.17 PeV, respectively, the highest neutrino energies observed so far. These events are consistent with fully contained particle showers induced by neutral-current ν(e,µ,τ) (ν(e,µ,τ)) or charged-current ν(e) (ν(e)) interactions within the IceCube detector. The events were discovered in a search for ultrahigh energy neutrinos using data corresponding to 615.9 days effective live time. The expected number of atmospheric background is 0.082±0.004(stat)(-0.057)(+0.041)(syst). The probability of observing two or more candidate events under the atmospheric background-only hypothesis is 2.9×10(-3) (2.8σ) taking into account the uncertainty on the expected number of background events. These two events could be a first indication of an astrophysical neutrino flux; the moderate significance, however, does not permit a definitive conclusion at this time.