As seen over the past 20 years, calprotectin has evolved as a novel, non-invasive biomarker of gastrointestinal (GI) inflammation. We present this review of calprotectin in pediatrics. This article will focus on studies using calprotectin concentrations from different body fluids to monitor inflammation in different disease states and conditions. The ultimate goal of our group is to lay down a foundation as we consider using calprotectin prospectively as a marker of intestinal inflammation that could lead to further testing and possibly a marker of preparedness for feeding. We surveyed all published studies in English of calprotectin in neonates, infants, children, and adolescents through February 2014. We will discuss calprotectin's basic properties and analysis such as characteristics, identification, presence in body fluids, and maturational development. In addition, calprotectin's use in inflammatory diseases exploring both GI and non-GI conditions will be evaluated and compared with other serum markers presently available. Finally, a summary of our findings and discussion of future work that could be undertaken in order to render calprotectin as a more useful monitoring tool to the medical research community will complete the review.

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Study Objective: To compare rates of catheter-related bloodstream infections (CR-BSI) in pediatric patients who received parenteral nutrition (PN) with either soybean oil-based intravenous fat emulsion (SO-IFE) or mixed oil-IFE (MO-IFE). We hypothesized that the use of MO-IFE would be independently associated with reduced infection rates compared with SO-IFE.

Outbreaks of measles have been reported over the past 5 years, particularly affecting children between the ages of 1 and 5 years. Most of these children are younger than the age recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the second dose of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. Question may arise as to whether strict adherence to the scheduled second dose is required or whether there is opportunity for earlier immunization under special circumstances (e.g., traveling abroad, poor response as evidenced by titer levels). The history of measles, its characteristics, and its evolving past and current immunization policies will be reviewed, focusing on the original intent of the recommended schedule and presenting a case in which deviating from current practice could be justified.