Acute bronchiolitis consists of a viral infection that affects children younger than 2 years old, with the peak of incidence under 6 months. The clinical disease has symptoms of infection of the upper airway, which develops after 2-4 days with fatigue, dyspnea, tachypnea, and respiratory effort. Fever and reduction of dietary compliance, may also occur. Apnea has been reported in severe cases or premature. The diagnosis is based on clinical history and physical examination, reserved additional tests when there is a suspicion of other diagnoses or complications. Treatment is supportive, the oxygen therapy is indicated for patients with oxygen saturation under 90%. Currently, oral corticosteroids has no indication for the treatment. The use of bronchodilators is not routinely indicated and the use of hypertonic saline is controversial. The use of the antiviral ribavirin is indicated in specific cases because there are adverse effects and high costs. Prophylaxis of bronchiolitis is fundamental, and hand-washing, use of alcohol, use of masks and gloves are essential for disease prevention. The use of palivizumab is indicated in selected cases.

ObjectiveTo assess the accuracy of sweat conductivity among newborns and very young infants.DesignProspective, population-based, diagnostic test accuracy study.SettingPublic Statewide Newborn Screening Programme where the incidence rate of cystic fibrosis (CF) is ≈1:11 000.PatientsNewborns and very young infants with positive two-tiered immunoreactive trypsinogen.InterventionsSweat conductivity and sweat chloride were performed simultaneously, on the same day and facility by independent technicians, with the cut-off values of 80 mmol/L and 60 mmol/L, respectively.Main outcome measuresSensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV), overall accuracy, positive and negative likelihood ratios (+LR, -LR) and post (sweat conductivity (SC)) test probability were calculated to assess SC performance.Results1193 participants were included, 68 with and 1108 without CF, and 17 with intermediate values. The mean (SD) age was 48 (19.2) days, ranging from 15 to 90 days. SC yielded sensitivity of 98.5% (95% CI 95.7 to 100), specificity of 99.9% (95% CI 99.7 to 100), PPV of 98.5% (95% CI 95.7 to 100) and NPV of 99.9% (95% CI 99.7 to 100), overall accuracy of 99.8% (95% CI 99.6 to 100), +LR of 1091.7 (95% CI 153.8 to 7744.9) and -LR of 0.01 (95% CI 0.00 to 0.10). After a positive and negative sweat conductivity result, the patient’s probability of CF increases around 350 times and drops to virtually zero, respectively.ConclusionSweat conductivity had excellent accuracy in ruling in or ruling out CF after positive two-tiered immunoreactive trypsinogen among newborns and very young infants.

We monitored the susceptibility to penicillin of invasive strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae in two reference laboratories; 502 positive cultures from patients with an active invasive infectious process were analyzed. Streptococcus pneumoniae was identified through conventional procedures, and the oxacillin disc diffusion method was used to check for penicillin susceptibility. Statistical analysis included calculations of the frequency distribution, with 95% confidence intervals (CI), as well as chi-square tests and chi-square for linear trend for temporal analysis of susceptibility. The bacterium was isolated from patients less than a year old (40.7% of the isolates), from infants (55.9%), and from individuals less than 15 years old (64.4%). The majority (88.2%, 95% CI = 85.5%-91.1%) of the 502 isolates were susceptible to penicillin. There was no significant temporal trend of elevation of resistance rate during the study period (p=0.56). We conclude that resistance of S. pneumoniae to penicillin is not yet an important clinical-epidemiological concern in the State of Minas Gerais. To provide necessary support for the adoption of therapeutic and prophylactic measures, epidemiological surveillance should be implemented at a national level to monitor the profile of susceptibility/resistance of S. pneumoniae to penicillin and other antimicrobials.

The evaluation of radiographs using the Brasfield score demonstrated the most important pulmonary findings in cystic fibrosis and identified the age group when these alterations began to appear more pronounced.

Single BCG vaccination has been considered as a protective factor against asthma. However the effect of a second dose of BCG on the prevalence rate of asthma and asthma-allergic rhinitis-eczema comorbidity has not been studied exclusively among adolescents. In this ISAAC protocol-based cross sectional study we assessed the association between one single versus two doses of BCG among 2213 individuals aged 13-14 years old. We found no association between BCG revaccination and asthma, associated (OR = 0.68, 95% CI, 0.37-1.25) or not to allergic rhinitis and/or atopic eczema (OR = 1.07, 95% CI, 0.84-1.36).