Seasonal influenza can be prevented by vaccination. Disease prevention in children aged <60 months is of particular importance because of the associated familial and societal burden. Considering that caretakers make the decision to vaccinate their children, the identification of drivers and barriers to vaccination is essential to increase influenza vaccination coverage.

A total of 639 parents participated in the pre- and...

Vitamin D plays a key role in immune function. Vitamin D deficiency may play a role in the pathogenesis of infections, and low levels of circulating vitamin D are strongly associated with infectious diseases. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of low vitamin D levels in cord blood on neonatal sepsis in preterm infants.

One hundred seventeen premature...

This study aimed to verify the safety of low-dose topiramate on language development in pediatric patients with migraine.

Thirty newly diagnosed pediatric patients with migraine who needed topiramate were enrolled and assessed twice with standard language tests, including the Test of Language Problem Solving Abilities (TOPs), Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test, Urimal Test of Articulation and Phonology, and computerized speech laboratory...

Escherichia coli sequence type (ST) 131, a multidrug-resistant clone causing extraintestinal infections, has rapidly become prevalent worldwide. However, the epidemiological and clinical features of pediatric infections are poorly understood. We aimed to explore the characteristics of ST131 Escherichia coli isolated from Korean children with urinary tract infections.

We examined 114 uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) isolates from children hospitalized at Chung-Ang University...

Vitamin D is associated with various pathological conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer. We investigated the relationship between vitamin D and Kawasaki disease (KD).

We performed a retrospective review of the medical records of patients with KD between February 2013 and March 2016 in Daegu Fatima Hospital. Study participants were grouped according to vitamin D serum concentration. Group 1 included...

Activation of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) present on circulating monocytes in patients with Kawasaki disease (KD) can lead to the production of proinflammatory cytokines and interleukin-10 (IL-10). We aimed to determine the association of the frequency of circulating TLR2+/CD14+ monocytes (FTLR2%) with the outcomes of KD, as well as to compare FTLR2% to the usefulness of sIL-10.

The FTLR2% in patients...

Myocardial dysfunction and dysrhythmias are inevitable consequences of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. We aimed to evaluate specific trends of electrocardiographic changes that reflect the progress of cardiomyopathy in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Fifty electrocardiograms (ECGs) of 30 patients (ages 1 to 27 years) who had not been prescribed medications for heart failure treatment at the time of examination were retrospectively analyzed...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of lamotrigine for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children with epilepsy.

Pediatric patients newly diagnosed with epilepsy (n=90 [61 boys and 29 girls]; mean age, 9.1±3.4 years) were enrolled. All patients were evaluated with the Korean ADHD rating scale (K-ARS)-IV before treatment with lamotrigine and after doses...

Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is a significant cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Erythropoietin (EPO) is emerging as a therapeutic candidate for neuroprotection. Therefore, this study was designed to determine the neuroprotective role of recombinant human EPO (rHuEPO) and the possible mechanisms by which mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway including extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2), JNK, and p38 MAPK is modulated in...

Plasma level of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), an emerging, sensitive, and specific biomarker of hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), rapidly decreases in infants receiving cyclooxygenase inhibitors for ductal closure. We investigated the usefulness of serial BNP measurement as a guide for individual identification of early constrictive responses to ibuprofen in preterm infants with symptomatic PDA (sPDA).

Before March 2010, the...

To investigate the frequency of childhood sleep problems at pediatric clinics in Seoul and Gyeonggi provinces.

Children (n=936) and their parents who visited 5 primary and 1 secondary pediatric outpatient clinics were invited to complete a Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire.

Among patients, 901 (96.3%) answered questionnaires in sufficient detail for evaluation. The participant's mean age was 4.35±3.02 years (range, 0–18 years). The male...

Macrolide resistance rate of Mycoplasma pneumoniae has rapidly increased in children. Studies on the clinical features between macrolide susceptible-M. pneumoniae (MSMP) and macrolide resistant-M. pneumoniae (MRMP) are lacking. The aim of this study was to identify the macrolide resistance rate of M. pneumoniae in Korean children with M. pneumoniae penupmonia in 2015 and compare manifestations between MSMP and MRMP.

Among 122...

The gut microbiota can influence several diseases through immune modulation; however, the exact role of microbes such as Clostridium difficileand the relationship between microbiota colonization and allergic diseases are not well known. This study aimed to determine the relationship between C. difficilecolonization and/or infection (CDCI) during infancy and allergic diseases during early childhood.

Infants 1–12 months of age presenting changes in...

Following legal reform in 2013, the annual number of asylum seekers entering South Korea has increased from 1,143 in 2012 to 5,711 in 2015. We interviewed six African refugee mothers of young children regarding their health needs and barriers to access maternal child health services.

We recruited mothers who had visited a clinic for immigrants between July 2013 and August 2015....

Chloramphenicol and tetracycline are not recommended for treating scrub typhus in pediatric patients because of potential side effects, such as aplastic anemia or tooth discoloration. While clarithromycin has recently been used in adults, few reports have been published on its effects in pediatric patients. We report the clinical profiles of pediatric scrub typhus and the effects of clarithromycin on scrub...

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a problem in the community. TB patients usually experience malnutrition, which is characterized by both decreased body weight (BW) and body fat percentage (BFP). Leptin, an important regulator of BW, also plays an important role in cellular immunity, which is integral to defense against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. We analyzed the effect of an anti-TB treatment regimen on...

The aims of this study were to compare serum procalcitonin (PCT) levels between febrile children with Kawasaki disease (KD) and those with bacterial or viral infections, and assess the clinical usefulness of PCT level in predicting KD.

Serum PCT levels were examined in febrile pediatric patients admitted between August 2013 and August 2014. The patients were divided into 3 groups as...

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency among infants with neonatal indirect hyperbilirubinemia (NIH); compare G6PD-deficient and G6PD-normal patients regarding hyperbilirubinemia and need for exchange transfusions (ET); and assess risk factors for ET and kernicterus.

This is a case-control retrospective study. Medical records of NIH patients admitted to the Pediatric Department, Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain, between...

To evaluate the clinical spectrum of posttransplantation lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) after solid organ transplantation (SOT) in children.

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 18 patients with PTLD who underwent liver (LT) or kidney transplantation (KT) between January 1995 and December 2014 in Seoul National University Children's Hospital.

Eighteen patients (3.9% of pediatric SOTs; LT:KT, 11:7; male to female, 9:9) were diagnosed...

Fever is one of the most common symptoms in children. In previous studies, infectious disease was the most common cause of pediatric fever of unknown origin (FUO). The aim of this study is to investigate the etiology, clinical characteristics and prognosis of pediatric FUO in 21 century with more diagnostics available and to analyze the factors for certain disease categories.

Among...

This study investigated self-food restriction during breastfeeding, reviewed the literature showing the effect of maternal diet on the health of breast-fed infants, and explored the validity of dietary restrictions.

Questionnaire data were collected from breastfeeding Korean mothers who visited the pediatric clinic of Cheil General Hospital & Women's Healthcare Center from July 2015 through August 2015. The survey included items assessing...

The goal of nutritional support for very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants from birth to term is to match the in utero growth rates; however, this is rarely achieved.

We evaluated postdischarge growth patterns and growth failure in 81 Korean VLBW infants through a retrospective study. Weight and height were measured and calculated based on age percentile distribution every 3 months until age 24...

The aims of this study were to evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetics of levetiracetam (LEV) in neonates with seizures and to establish a population pharmacokinetics (PPK) model by using the software NONMEM.

A retrospective analysis of 18 neonatal patients with seizures, who were treated with LEV, including 151 serum samples, was performed. The mean loading dose was 20 mg/kg, followed by...

Serum level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) is considered as the most appropriate marker of vitamin D status. However, only a few studies have investigated the relationship between 25-OHD and parathyroid hormone (PTH) in children. To this end, this study was aimed at evaluating the lowest 25-OHD level that suppresses the production of parathyroid hormone in children.

A retrospective record review was...

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an immune-related multisystemic vasculitis that occurs in children, especially ensuing from a coronary artery abnormality. Sodium level is known to be related to vascular injury, which could affect the progress of KD. The purpose of this study was to determine the serum sodium levels that could predict the occurrence of cardiac and coronary artery events in...

Previously, Kawasaki disease (KD) treatment with low-dose aspirin was administered for 6–8 weeks after the acute phase. However, inflammatory marker levels normalize before 6–8 weeks. In this study, we aimed to investigate the clinical outcome of short-term low-dose aspirin treatment based on inflammatory and thrombotic marker levels.

We performed a retrospective review of the medical records of patients with KD who...

To examine the correlation of depression with Internet use and body image perception, and to analyze the risk factors of depression in a total of 920 students in Seoul, Korea.

Students were recruited by contacting school principals and teachers and were encouraged to fill out a self-report questionnaire designed specifically for this study in July of 2008.

Female participants had an increased...

Although procalcitonin (PCT) level is useful for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis, PCT reliability is inconsistent because of the varied conditions encountered in neonatal intensive care units. This study aimed to investigate PCT levels and factors influencing increased PCT levelin newborns without bacterial infection during the first week of life.

In newborns hospitalized between March 2013 and October 2015, PCT levels...

We investigated the number of test takers of the Korean-Developmental Screening Test (K-DST) in a single children's hospital within a year, according to age, referral rate, and follow-up percentage.

For this study, 4,062 children who visited and received K-DST at Woorisoa Children's Hospital between January and December 2015 were enrolled. Seven test sets were used according to the Korean National Health...

We conducted a study to determine which factors may be useful as predictive markers in identifying Kawasaki disease (KD) patients with a high risk of resistance to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and developing coronary artery lesions (CAL).

We enrolled 287 patients in acute phase of KD at a single center. The demographic, clinical and laboratory data were collected retrospectively.

There were 34 patients...