Respiratory syncytial virus is one of the major causes of respiratory tract infections during infancy with high rates of hospitalization and mortality during the first years of life. It is the most common cause of acute bronchiolitis and viral pneumonia in children below two years of age and second the most common cause of postneonatal infant mortality all around the world following malaria. In addition, the virus has been causally linked to recurrent wheezing and associated with pediatric asthma. The respiratory syncytial virus infections tend to be severe in high risk patients such as patients below six months of age, with prematurity, congenital heart diseases, neuromuscular diseases and immune deficiencies. No specific treatment is available for respiratory syncytial virus infections to date. Severe cases require supportive therapy, mainly oxygen supplementation and hydration, and less frequently, ventilatory support. Because there is no vaccine to prevent respiratory syncytial virus infections or clinically effective treatment to administer to children with respiratory syncytial virus infection, immunoprophylaxis with palivizumab is currently the only method for reducing morbidity associated with severe respiratory syncytial virus in high-risk infants.

This study aimed to assess the demographic data and treatment results of children who were diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma and treated according to the Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster-95 (BFM) protocol in a single institution. A total of 48 patients (37 boys, 77%) with a median age of 8 years (range 2 to 16 years) at diagnosis, were evaluated. Primary tumor sites were abdomen (70.8%), head and neck (22.9%), peripheral lymph node (2%), bone (2%), and testis (2%). The 5-year overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) were 78.1±4% and 76.6±6%, respectively. In univariate analysis, hemoglobin level less than 10 g/dL, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) positivity and dialysis requirement at diagnosis were found to be important reverse predictor factors for EFS (P; 0.001, 0.001, 0.004, respectively). In multivariate analysis, hemoglobin level less than 10 g/dL and dialysis at diagnosis were found to be important reverse predictor factors for EFS (P; 0.0001). The EFS of our patients was lower than the values achieved with BFM-95 protocol in other centers. This study provides evidence that low hemoglobin level, CSF positivity and dialysis at diagnosis were important predictor factors for EFS in children with Burkitt lymphoma.

We studied the duration and dispersion of the P wave in patients after a Senning operation, assessing its value in detecting the risk of atrial tachycardias.We measured the duration and dispersion of the wave in surface 12 lead electrocardiograms obtained from 18 patients with sinus rhythm, having a mean age of 12.8 years, with 13 being males and 5 females, who had undergone a Senning operation, comparing the values obtained in 35 age and gender-matched healthy people. The patients had undergone repair at a mean age of 13.4 months, and had a mean duration of follow-up of 12.8 years after the procedure. We also made 24 hour Holter recordings.The maximal duration of the P wave, at a mean of 129.3 milliseconds, and dispersion with a mean of 78 milliseconds, were both significantly increased in the patients compared with their controls, the mean values for the normal subjects being 103.7 and 54 milliseconds. Supraventricular tachycardia was detected in 1 of 3 patients with dispersion greater than 100 milliseconds, and in 2 of 15 patients (13%) with dispersion less than 100 milliseconds as measured from the Holter recordings (p > 0.05).Thus, the maximum duration and dispersion of the P wave were increased in patients after a Senning operation, but we were unable to establish any relationship between these measurements and atrial tachycardias as observed using Holter monitoring.