A national audit of UK asthma admissions over a seven year period demonstrates improvements in asthma managment.  Here. 

You might like to know that ADC has put up its first ever podcast, a discussion between Ian Balfour-Lynn and Harry Baumer about developments in respiratory paediatrics. It’s here. Feel free to leave comments here, or you can email our editor in chief; his email address is on that page.

In a series of 11 patients with G6PD deficiency of varying ages there were no false positive results; the same authors were also unable to find any original reference outside of textbooks which suggested there should be.  Here.

A case-controlled follow up study of 103 children admitted to hospital radiologically confirmed community acquired pneumonia revealed, at an average of 5.3 years after the pneumonia, an increased risk of persistent symptoms and lung function deficits.   Here.

In a review of guidelines and survey of Australasian paediatric emergency departments, there was good consistency in management of mild to moderate asthma, but poor agreement about how to measure severe asthma, which probably reflects paucity of clear evidence.  Here.

In this cohort from Aberdeen, 1371 children were assessed at 2 years and their asthma symptoms subclassified into rattle, purr and whistle.  At five years there was a significant difference between the groups in terms of treatment with asthma medication.  Here. more…

Of 103 children seen for TB contact tracing screening, application of the recent UK NICE guideline, which includes gamma IFN testing, 23 would have had a different treatment to that determined by previous screening methods. Here.

Leading article: Balfour Lynn looks at the evidence for, and benefits of, screening at birth for cystic fibrosis. Here.

In a trial of 29 children with bronchiolitis and hypercapnia, randomised to CPAP versus standard treatment with crossover at 12 hours, those getting CPAP had an average 1 kPa fall in CO2, and those who got CPAP first had a larger CO2 fall than those who got it second. Here.

In a questionnaire study of children from ethnic backgrounds in London, cultural perspectives had an impact on family understanding of asthma.  Here.