BackgroundWe aimed to compare the antipyretic efficacy, safety, and tolerability between oral dexibuprofen and intravenous propacetamol in children with upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) presenting with fever.MethodsPatients aging from 6 months to 14 years admitted for URTI with axillary body temperature ≥ 38.0 °C were enrolled and randomized into the study or control group. Patients in the study group were intravenously infused with propacetamol and subsequently oral placebo medication was administered. Patients in the control group were intravenously infused with 100 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride solution without propacetamol and then oral dexibuprofen was administered. We checked the body temperature of all patients at 0.5 h (hr), 1 h, 1.5 h, 2 h, 3 h, 4 h, and 6 h after oral placebo or dexibuprofen had been applied.ResultsA total of 263 patients (125 in the study group) were finally enrolled. The body temperatures of patients in the study group were significantly lower until 2 h after administration (37.73 ± 0.58 vs 38.36 ± 0.69 °C (p < 0.001), 37.37 ± 0.53 vs 37.88 ± 0.69 °C (p < 0.001), 37.27 ± 0.60 vs 37.62 ± 0.66 °C (p < 0.001), 37.25 ± 0.62 vs 37.40 ± 0.60 °C (p = 0.0452), at 0.5 h, 1 h, 1.5 h, and 2 h, respectively). The two groups showed no significant differences in terms of the range of body temperature decrease, the Area Under the Curve of body temperature change for antipyretic administration-and-time relationship, the maximum value of body temperature decrease during the 6 h test period, the number of patients whose body temperature normalized (< 37.0 °C), the mean time when first normalization of body temperature, and the development of adverse events including gastrointestinal problem, elevated liver enzyme, and thrombocytopenia.ConclusionsIntravenous propacetamol may be a safe and effective choice for pediatric URTI patients presenting with fever who are not able to take oral medications or need faster fever control.Trial registrationCRIS KCT0002888. Date of registration: July 31st, 2013.

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Background and ObjectivesSurvivors of pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are at risk for developing hypertension. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the prevalence and risk factors of early onset hypertension during the engraftment period after HSCT.Subjects and MethodsThis is a retrospective study of 157 consecutive patients (mean age at HSCT: 9.1±5.1 years) who underwent HSCT for acute myeloid leukemia (n=47), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (n=43), severe aplastic anemia (n=41), and other reasons (n=26). Blood pressure data were collected at five time points: 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days after HSCT. Hypertension was defined as having systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥95th percentile according to age, gender, and height. To analyze the risk factors related to hypertension, data, including patients' demographic and transplant characteristics, were reviewed.ResultsHypertension developed in 59 patients (38%), among whom 12 (7.6%) required long term therapy. Thirty-two (54%) patients had systolic and diastolic, 8 (14%) had only systolic, and 19 (32%) had only diastolic hypertension. Younger age, acute graft-versus-host disease, sinusoidal obstruction syndrome, treatment with antifungal agent, and greater increase in serum creatinine (Cr) levels were associated with hypertension. Multivariate analysis showed that younger age at HSCT and greater increase in serum Cr level were independent risk factors for hypertension.ConclusionPrevalence of hypertension during immediate post-HSCT period is high, especially in younger children. A greater increase in Cr after HSCT was significantly associated with hypertension. Further study is needed to elucidate long-term cardiovascular complications in pediatric HSCT survivors.

Background and ObjectivesCardiovascular complications are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in childhood cancer survivors. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a curable therapy for pediatric cancer. However, changes in cardiac function in children after HSCT are not well known. We assessed left ventricular (LV) function in children after HSCT using speckle tracking echocardiography (STE).Subjects and MethodsForty consecutive patients with median age of 11.9 years (range, 1.5-16 years) who received HSCT for acute leukemia and had comprehensive echocardiography before and after (median 9.2 month) HSCT were included in this study. The LV function parameters including conventional tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and STE data were collected from pre- and post-HSCT echocardiography. These data were compared to those of 39 age-matched normal controls.ResultsCompared to normal controls, post HSCT patients had similar (p=0.06) LV ejection fraction. However, the following three LV function parameters were significantly decreased in post HSCT patients: rate-corrected velocity of circumferential fiber shortening (p=0.04), mitral inflow E velocity (p<0.001), and mitral septal annular E' velocity (p=0.03). The following four STE parameters were also significantly decreased in post HSCT patients: LV global circumferential systolic strain (p<0.01), strain rate (SR, p=0.01), circumferential diastolic SR (p<0.01), and longitudinal diastolic SR (p<0.001). There was no significant change in TDI or STE parameters after HSCT compared to pre-HSCT. Patients with anthracycline cumulative dose >400 mg/m2 showed significantly (p<0.05) lower circumferential systolic strain and circumferential diastolic SR.ConclusionSubclinical cardiac dysfunction is evident in children after HSCT. It might be associated with pre-HSCT anthracycline exposure with little effect of conditioning regimens. Serial monitoring of cardiac function is mandatory for all children following HSCT.

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Cardiac myxoma is rare in children and often associated with cerebrovascular events. Reported herein is the case of a 9-year-old boy who presented with acute obstruction of the aortic bifurcation associated with a huge left atrial (LA) myxoma, thereby leading to acute ischemia of the lower extremities. Immediate surgical removal of the LA myxoma with concomitant percutaneous embolectomy using a Forgathy catheter was done, with relief of ischemic symptoms. Cardiac myxoma should always be considered in the case of acute embolic events in children, given that it needs immediate intervention to prevent further complications.