The Journal of pediatrics
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The Journal of pediatrics · Jul 2006
Serum procalcitonin and other biologic markers to distinguish between bacterial and aseptic meningitis.
To identify the biologic tests that best distinguish between bacterial and aseptic meningitis in an emergency department (ED). ⋯ PCT and CSF protein had the best predictive value to distinguish between bacterial and aseptic meningitis in children.
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The Journal of pediatrics · Jul 2006
Comparative StudyComparison of clinical prediction rules for management of pharyngitis in settings with limited resources.
To compare the effectiveness of several clinical prediction rules for culture-positive streptococcal pharyngitis in a single group of patients in a setting in which clinicians routinely treat all cases of pharyngitis presumptively, without laboratory data. ⋯ The prediction rules demonstrated variable diagnostic effectiveness in the Egyptian children. Without laboratory testing, 2 clinical rules detected > 90% of cases of pharyngitis with positive culture for group A streptococcus and reduced overtreatment of culture-negative cases by approximately 40%. Selected clinical prediction rules have useful characteristics in settings of limited resources and need further validation.
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The Journal of pediatrics · Jul 2006
Children are not small adults: documentation of assent for research involving children.
Obtaining assent is an important part of research involving children, both from an ethical and regulatory perspective. Current practice for documenting assent is derived largely from documentation of informed consent for adults as there is little guidance in federal regulations. We propose a new approach to documenting assent.