Infection with a newly described hantavirus causes the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which is characterized by a brief prodromal illness followed by rapidly progressive, noncardiogenic pulmonary edema.

Respiratory assessment of children with asthma or bronchiolitis is problematic because both the components of the assessment and their relative importance vary among care providers. Use of a systematic standard assessment process and clinical score may reduce interobserver variation. Our objective was to determine observer agreement among physicians (MD), nurses (RN), and respiratory therapists (RT), using a standard respiratory clinical score. A clinical score was developed incorporating four physiologic parameters: respiratory rate, retractions, dyspnea, and auscultation. One hundred and sixty-five provider pairs (e.g., MD-MD, RN-RT) independently assessed a total of 55 patients admitted for asthma, bronchiolitis, or wheezing at an urban tertiary-care hospital. A weighted kappa statistic measured agreement beyond chance. Rater pairs had high observed agreement on total score of 82-88% and weighted kappas ranging from 0.52 (MD-RN; 95% CI, 0.19, 0.79) to 0.65 (RN-RN; 95% CI, 0.46, 0.87). Observed agreement on individual components of the score ranged from 58% (auscultation) to 74% (dyspnea), with unweighted kappas of 0.36 (respiratory rate; 95% CI, 0.26, 0.46) to 0.53 (dyspnea; 95% CI, 0.41, 0.65). In conclusion, this respiratory clinical score demonstrates good interobserver agreement between MDs, RNs, and RTs. Future research is needed to examine validity and responsiveness in clinical settings. By standardizing respiratory assessments, use of a clinical score may facilitate care coordination by physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists and thereby improve care of children hospitalized with asthma and bronchiolitis.

In the period July through October, 1986, 78 laboratory-confirmed cases of cryptosporidiosis were identified in New Mexico. To determine possible risk factors for development of this disease, we conducted a case-control study; 24 case-patients and 46 neighborhood controls were interviewed. Seventeen (71 per cent) of the 24 case-patients were females, seven (29%) were males; their

To elucidate the early clinical characteristics of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), we compared the clinical features of 24 cases of HPS with those of cases of bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia (n = 30), influenza (n = 33), or unexplained adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS, n = 21). On admission, patients with HPS were less likely than outpatients with influenza to have reported sore throat (OR = 0.02, P < .01) and cough (OR = 0.1, P = .01) and were less likely than patients with pneumococcal pneumonia to have lobar infiltrates detected by chest roentgenography (OR = 0, P < .01). Multivariate discriminant analysis revealed that three clinical characteristics at admission (dizziness, nausea or vomiting, and absence of cough) and three initial laboratory abnormalities (low platelet count, low serum bicarbonate level, and elevated hematocrit level) served to identify all patients with HPS and to exclude HPS in at least 80% of patients with unexplained ARDS. These findings warrant further study and should facilitate the early recognition of patients with HPS, who may benefit from early critical-care intervention.

The possession and sale of alcohol is illegal on many Native American reservations. This policy forces Native Americans who want to drink to travel long distances to obtain alcohol. These data suggest that this policy is also the likely explanation for the markedly increased risk of death from hypothermia and pedestrian-motor vehicle crashes in this population.