Telemedicine allows face-to-face interaction between the medical specialist and the patient. We present our experience of 102 pediatric telecardiology consultations between a tertiary care cardiac center and a remote rural hospital located 120 miles away, between July 2000 and December 2003. The connection was through a Very Small Aperture Terminal satellite bandwidth provided by the Indian Space Research Organization. An S-video link between the echocardiographic and videoconferencing equipment at the remote center allowed the specialist to view images in real time. Pathology was ruled out in 50 (49%) children by tele-echocardiography. Cardiac problems were diagnosed in 52 children (51%), of whom 30 (29%) required surgery. Successful cardiac surgery following telediagnosis was carried out in 18 patients, 8 are awaiting elective operations, and 4 died before surgical correction. The Very Small Aperture Terminal enabled a higher bandwidth that allowed clear images with no significant diagnostic errors. This study demonstrates that pediatric telecardiology effectively delivers cardiac care in rural centers in developing countries with stretched medical resources, where the specialists are urban centered and the majority of patients are rural based.
Extra pulmonary tuberculosis has varied presentations and hence fever of unknown origin, with malaise, weight loss and cytopenias is generally attributed to tuberculosis in endemic regions. Tuberculosis being the most frequent cause of bone marrow granulomas, there is a risk of labelling granulomatous lesions as of infectious etiology when underlying etiology has an atypical presentation. Progressive painless lymphadenopathy, most commonly involving the cervical or supraclavicular area is the commonest presentation of Hodgkin’s lymphomas (HL) in 80%. Primary extra nodal presentation of HL is rare. We describe a case of an adolescent girl who presented with fever of unknown origin, weight loss, malaise, hematological derangements and bone marrow showing granuloma, all features pointing towards an infectious etiology, but later proven to be a case of HL.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.