Pediatric heart transplant recipients who were at risk for CMV and treated with a novel preventative hybrid strategy developed CMV infection, syndrome, and disease at rates similar to those reported in literature for prophylactic strategies.

As in Japanese studies, a positive Harada score in a US population could be used to identify a high-risk population for CAA development. All children who developed CAA after treatment with IVIG would have been assigned to a high-risk category. Though not specific enough to select initial therapy, the score might be useful in identifying high-risk children for evaluation of new therapies and more frequent follow-up.

Background Copper (Cu) is an essential trace element, with deficiency causing anemia, neutropenia, and other abnormalities. Cu is mainly absorbed in the small intestine. Patients with intestinal failure or jejunostomy have increased Cu losses and require additional Cu supplementation in parenteral nutrition (PN). The American Society for Clinical Nutrition standards for trace element recommendations in PN, including Cu, were created in 1988, and the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition currently follows the same recommendations. Methods Patients admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit for surgical intervention resulting in an ostomy (ileal or jejunal) were included in this retrospective study. Patients received PN support with Cu dosed individually, rather than in a multi‐trace element package. Cu and ostomy output were analyzed daily. Serum Cu was obtained 2 months postsurgical intervention. Results Out of the 7 patients enrolled, 71% had low serum Cu. Weekly mean Cu intake for all 7 patients ranged from 5.3 to 154.8 μg/kg/day from enteral and parenteral sources, with individual mean weekly Cu intake ranging from 18.9 to 74.4 μg/kg/day from surgical intervention to 2 months post‐surgery. Patients’ weekly ostomy outputs ranged from 0 mL/kg/day to 77.2 mL/kg/day, with individual mean weekly output ranging from 3.7 to 41.6 mL/kg/day. Conclusion Providing 20 μg/kg/day of Cu in PN to neonates with ostomies is insufficient to prevent Cu deficiency. Further studies are warranted to determine an optimal dosage of parenteral Cu to prevent Cu deficiency.

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BACKGROUND: Syphilis screening during pregnancy helps prevent congenital syphilis. The harms associated with false positive (FP) screens and whether screening leads to correct treatments has not been well determined. METHODS: The population included mothers and infants from 75 056 pregnancies. Using laboratory-based criteria we classified initial positive syphilis screens as FP or true positive (TP) and calculated false discovery rates. For mothers and infants we determined treatments, clinical characteristics, and syphilis classifications. RESULTS: There were 221 positive screens: 183 FP and 38 TP. The false discovery rate was 0.83 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.78–0.88). False discovery rates were similar for traditional 0.83 [95% CI, 0.72–0.94] and reverse algorithms 0.83 (95% CI, 0.77–0.88), and for syphilis Immunoglobin (Ig) G 0.79 (95% CI, 0.71–0.86) and total 0.90 (95% CI, 0.82–0.97) assays. FP screens led to treatment in 2 women and 1 infant. Two high-risk women were not rescreened at delivery and were diagnosed after hospital discharge; 1 infant developed congenital syphilis. Among 15 TP women with new syphilis, the diagnosis was before the late third trimester in 14 (93%). In one-half of these women, there was concern for reinfection, treatment failure, inadequate treatment or follow-up care, or late treatment, and their infants did not achieve an optimal syphilis classification. CONCLUSIONS: Syphilis screening identifies maternal syphilis, but limitations include FP screens, which occasionally lead to unnecessary treatment, inconsistent risk-based rescreening, and among TP mothers failure to optimize care to prevent birth of infants at higher risk for congenital syphilis.