Children with Down syndrome are at a high risk of developing transient abnormal myelopoiesis (TAM; synonym: TMD) or myeloid leukemia (ML-DS). While most patients with TAM are asymptomatic and go into spontaneous remission without a need for therapy, around 20% of patients die within the first six months due to TAM-related complications. Another 20–30% of patients progress from TAM to ML-DS. ML-DS patients are particularly vulnerable to therapy-associated toxicity, but the prognosis of relapsed M...

Background Meropenem is an important second- or third-line antibiotic in pediatric cancer patients with febrile neutropenia (FN). Concise utilization data of meropenem in this setting is limited. It remains unclear how drug dispensing data from the hospital pharmacy correlate with data derived from patients’ files.

Methods Retrospective audit of meropenem-consumption in a University-affiliated pediatric oncology center in days of therapy (DOT)/100 inpatient days. The individual indication for merop...

Hintergrund Neben der Palliativversorgung in der Sterbephase, gewinnt die Betreuung erkrankter Kinder und ihrer Familien in Krisenzeiten einer lebenslimitierenden Erkrankung an Bedeutung. Dazu unterstützt ein spezialisiertes, ambulantes Palliativteam für Kinder und Jugendliche (SAPV-KJ-Team) die Familien. Ziel der retrospektiven Studie mittels Fragebogen war die Erfassung der Qualität dieser palliativmedizinischen Kriseninterventionen für die betroffenen Familien.

Methodik Ein retrospektiver Frageb...

Severe congenital neutropenia (SCN) is a rare primary immunodeficiency syndrome that is characterized by persistent severe neutropenia and increased susceptibility to bacterial and fungal infections in early infancy (Boztug K et al., Curr Opin Immunol 2009; 21(5): 472–480).

Rolf Kostmann has first identified the disease in Swedish patients in 1956 with the name of infantile genetic agranulocytosis (Kostmann R et al., Acta Paediatr Suppl 1956; 45(Suppl 105): 1–78). Multiple genetic defects have be...

Although plant-based diets (pescetarianism, lactoovovegetarianism, lactovegetarianism, ovovegetarianism and veganism) are generally considered as healthy and nutritionally adequate in adults, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases, not all families are aware of the nutritional supplements and other necessary aspects that are required for their infants. A well-balanced plant-based diet (usually lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet) with appropriate supplements an...