The New England journal of medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Nebulized budesonide for children with mild-to-moderate croup.
Although recent evidence has strongly supported the use of glucocorticoid therapy in children hospitalized with croup, the benefit of this therapy in children with less severe croup has not been documented. This randomized, double-blind trial compared a nebulized glucocorticoid, budesonide, with placebo in outpatients with mild-to-moderate croup. ⋯ We conclude that nebulized budesonide leads to a prompt and important clinical improvement in children with mild-to-moderate croup who come to the emergency department.
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Precise diagnosis of small-round-cell tumors is often a challenge to the pathologist and the clinical oncologist. In Ewing's sarcomas and related peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumors, a t(11;22) translocation or a (21,22) rearrangement is associated with hybrid transcripts of the EWS gene with the FLI1 or ERG gene. To investigate the diagnostic implication of this observation, we searched for these hybrid transcripts in tumors from patients with clinical and radiologic features of Ewing's sarcoma or peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumors. ⋯ A subgroup of small-round-cell tumors identified as belonging to the Ewing family of tumors can be defined according to a specific molecular genetic lesion that is detectable by a rapid, reliable, and efficient method. This approach can be applied to small specimens obtained by fine-needle biopsies.