Raoultella ornithinolytica is a pathogen causing an increasing number of pediatric infections. The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of R. ornithinolytica infections in children. As a retrospective analysis, clinical features and drug susceptibility data of the five cases were analyzed and related literature was reviewed. A total of 14 cases (eight females, six males) were analyzed: nine cases were retrieved from PubMed, Web of Science, and three domestic databases; five cases occurred in our hospital. The primary diseases of the older children were mainly of neoplastic and immune origin, while cases of infants and young children were mostly complicated by congenital malformation. Fever was the main symptom, and neonatal infection was mainly manifested by dyspnea and hypoxemia, with multiple skin flushes, systemic erythema, and leukocytosis. Of the 14 cases, six were ventilator-assisted, five had indwelling urethral catheters, three had surgical treatment or chemotherapy, and one had multiple rounds of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). Blood infection is the main route of R. ornithinolytica infection in children. Skin flushing and systemic erythema might be positive clues for newborn infection. Patients with multiple congenital abnormalities are susceptible to infection. Tumors, immune deficiency, and invasive operations increase the risk of infection. Blood culture was the main method of disease identification. Based on the drug susceptibility results, the preferred antibiotics are third generations of cephalosporins, carbapenems, quinolone, and aminoglycoside. Lastly, patients with sepsis mostly have poor prognosis.

Background: Glucose variability (GV) is a common complication of dysglycemia in critically ill patients. However, there are few studies on the role of GV in the prognosis of pediatric patients, and there is no consensus on the appropriate method for GV measurement. The objective of this study was to determine the “optimal” index of GV in non-diabetic critically ill children in a prospective multicenter cohort observational study. Also, we aimed to confirm the potential association between GV and unfavorable outcomes and whether this association persists after controlling for hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia.Materials and Methods: Blood glucose values were recorded for the first 72 h and were used to calculate the GV for each participant. Four different metrics [SD, glycemic lability index (GLI), mean absolute glucose (MAG), and absolute change of percentage (ACACP)] were considered and compared to identify the “best” GV index associated with poor prognosis in non-diabetic critically ill children. Among the four metrics, the SD was most commonly used in previous studies, while GLI- and MAG-integrated temporal information, that is the rate and magnitude of change and the time interval between glucose measurements. The fourth metric, the average consecutive ACACP, was introduced in our study, which can be used in real-time clinical decisions. The primary outcome of this study was the 28-day mortality. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to compare the predictive power of different metrics of GV for the primary outcome. The GV index with the largest area under ROC curve (AUC) was chosen for subsequent multivariate analyses. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to identify the potential predictors of the outcome. To compare the contribution in 28-day mortality prognosis between glycemic variability and hyper- or hypoglycemia, performance metrics were calculated, which included AUC, net reclassification improvement (NRI), and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI).Results: Among 780 participants, 12.4% (n = 97) died within 28 days after admission to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Statistically significant differences were found between survivors and non-survivors in terms of four GV metrics (SD, GLI, MAG, and ACACP), in which MAG (AUC: 0.762, 95% CI: 0.705–0.819, p < 0.001) achieved the largest AUC and showed a strong independent association with ICU mortality. Subsequent addition of MAG to the multivariate Cox model for hyperglycemia resulted in further quantitative evolution of the model statistics (AUC = 0.651–0.681, p = 0.001; IDI: 0.017, p = 0.044; NRI: 0.224, p = 0.186). The impact of hyperglycemia (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 1.419, 95% CI: 0.815–2.471, p = 0.216) on outcome was attenuated and no longer statistically relevant after adjustment for MAG (aHR: 2.455, 95% CI: 1.411–4.270, p = 0.001).Conclusions: GV is strongly associated with poor prognosis independent of mean glucose level, demonstrating more predictive power compared with hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia after adjusting for confounding factors. GV metrics that contain information, such as time and rate of change, are the focus of future research; thus, the MAG may be a good choice. The findings of this study emphasize the crucial role of GVs in children in the PICU. Clinicians should pay more attention to GV for clinical glucose management.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is an acute viral infection occurring mostly in infants and children. Enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection mostly occurs in children < 5 years of age. Severe cases, however, are usually encountered in children under the age of 3 years, and exceedingly rare in teenagers > 14 years and adults. We report a rare case of HFMD in a 16-year-old male teenager residing in Chonqing, China. The clinical presentation was typical of HFMD and included vesicular lesions and oral mucosal ulcers, macular and vesicular lesions on palms and soles. He developed severe neurological complications that were suggestive of brainstem encephalitis. EV71 RNA was detected in the patient’s faecal samples by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Specific IgM antibody to EV71 was detected in both serum and cerebrospinal fluid by ELISA. Gamma immunoglobulin therapy at 25 g/day was administered for 2 days, along with methylprednisolone, mannitol, ganglioside, and creatine phosphate sodium. The patient showed neurological improvement and recovered completely in 1 month. This case indicates that EV71 infection may cause HFMD in teenagers with potentially severe neurological involvement. Clinicians should be aware of the possibility of HFMD occurring in adults and teenagers as prompt treatment could be life-saving in these patients.

Objective: The second year of undergraduate medical education is a critical phase transitioning from basic medical knowledge to specialized learning, requiring strong critical thinking abilities. Pediatric diseases, with their unique characteristics, demand active critical thinking from pediatricians. This study aims to investigate and analyze the critical thinking dispositions of second-year pediatric medical students, identify influencing factors, and propose recommendations for improving teaching methods. Methods: This cross-sectional study employed the Chinese version of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CTDI-CV) and conducted an online survey among 240 second-year pediatric medical students at Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China. The study described the overall CTDI-CV scores and sub-dimension scores (mean ± standard deviation) and analyzed the distribution of critical thinking dispositions using t-tests and trend analysis. Results: A total of 229 students (95.4%) completed the survey, with 58.95% being female. The overall mean critical thinking score was 287.96 ± 39.09, and 139 students (60.70%) exhibited positive or highly positive critical thinking dispositions. Rural students scored lower than non-rural students (t = − 2.773, P = 0.0069), while only children scored higher than non-only children (t = 2.659, P = 0.0086). Higher high school academic ranking was associated with higher scores (H = 23.85, P < 0.001). Students whose parents had a bachelor’s degree or higher scored significantly better (t = 2.373, P = 0.0188). Interest in pediatrics was linked to higher scores (H = 15.36, P = 0.0015). Positive correlations were found between analyticity, inquisitiveness, and self-confidence (r ≥ 0.75). Conclusion: Second-year pediatric medical students in China generally display strong critical thinking abilities. Factors such as family background, academic performance, parental education level, and interest in pediatrics significantly influence these abilities. Pediatric educators should account for these individual differences to better enhance critical thinking development in students and improve teaching strategies accordingly.

Objective: To compare the ability of different indices of glycemic variability (GV) in the prognostic evaluation of critically ill children and investigate whether heterogeneity of glucose control exists within this population group. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of the GV data collected from patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University between January 2016 and December 2016. We calculated the mean glucose level (MGL) and four indices of GV, namely, standard deviation (SD), coefficient of variation (CV), mean amplitude of glycemic excursion (MAGE), and glycemic lability index (GLI). The 28-day mortality was considered as the primary endpoint. Results: Survivors and non-survivors showed significant differences in terms of the SD, CV, MAGE, and GLI (P < 0.05, for all). However, GLI was superior to the other indices and showed an independent association with ICU mortality (odds ratio [OR], 1.082; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.031–1.135; P < 0.01). Sub-group analysis disaggregated by quartiles of MGL and GV revealed that younger subjects (age ≤ 36 months) had significantly higher mortality in the lowest quartile of the MGL and in the highest quartile of GV; the older children (age > 36 months) experienced significantly higher mortality in the highest quartiles of MGL and GV. Conclusion: GV is closely associated with mortality, and among all glucose parameters evaluated, GLI was found to be the strongest predictor of outcomes. This paper is the first report of age being a potentially important modifier of the association between GV, MGL, and mortality in critically ill children.