BACKGROUND: There are over 15 million children who have cardiac anomalies around the world, resulting in a significant morbidity and mortality. Early recognition and treatment can improve the outcomes and lengthen life-expectancy of these patients. The NIH and WHO have promoted guidelines for screening for congenital cardiac anomalies using ultrasound in rural environments. METHODS: Our study took place in Bocas Del Toro, Panama where a mobile clinic was established for community healthcare screening and ultrasonographic evaluation by medical student volunteers and volunteer clinical faculty. This was a non-blinded, investigational study utilizing a convenience sample of pediatric patients presenting for voluntary evaluation. Seven first-year medical students were recruited for the study. These students underwent a training program for advanced cardiac ultrasound instruction, termed "Pediatric Echocardiography Cardiac Screening (PECS)". RESULTS: Ten patients were enrolled in the study. Nine patients had adequate images as defined by the PECS criteria and were all classified as normal cardiac pathology by the medical students, resulting in a sensitivity and specificity of 100％. A single patient was identified by medical students as having a pathologic pulmonic stenosis. This was confirmed as correct by a blinded ultrasonographer. CONCLUSIONS: In this pilot study, the first-year medical students were able to correctly identify pediatric cardiac anatomy and pathology in rural Panama after undergoing a 12-hour ultrasound PECS training session. We believe that with this knowledge, minimally trained practitioners can be used to screen for cardiac anomalies in rural Panama using ultrasound.

BACKGROUND: Ultrasound guided regional anesthesia is widely taught using task trainer models. Commercially available models are often used; however, they can be cost prohibitive. Therefore, alternative "homemade" models with similar fidelity are often used. We hypothesize that professional task trainers will be preferred over homemade models. The purpose of this study is to determine realism, durability and cleanliness of three different task trainers for ultrasound guided nerve blocks. METHODS: This was a prospective observational study using a convenience sample of medical student participants in an ultrasound guided nerve block training session on January 24th, 2015. Participants were asked to perform simulated nerve blocks on three different task trainers including, 1 commercial and 2 homemade. A questionnaire was then given to all participants to rate their experiences both with and without the knowledge on the cost of the simulator device. RESULTS: Data was collected from 25 participants. The Blue Phantom model was found to have the highest fidelity. Initially, 10 (40%) of the participants preferred the Blue Phantom model, while 10 (40%) preferred the homemade gelatin model and 5 (20%) preferred the homemade tofu model. After cost awareness, the majority, 18 (72%) preferred the gelatin model. CONCLUSION: The Blue Phantom model was thought to have the highest fidelity, but after cost consideration the homemade gelatin model was preferred.

The transradial approach (TRA) is an effective and safe alternative to transfemoral access for diagnostic neuroangiography and craniocervical interventions. While the technical aspects of supraclavicular intervention are well-described, there are little data on the TRA for thoracolumbar angiography and intervention. The authors describe the feasibility of the TRA for preoperative thoracic tumor embolization, emphasizing technique, device selection, navigation, and catheterization of thoracolumbar segmental arteries. This approach extends the benefits of TRA to spinal interventional neuroradiology.

Background: The PLASMIC score is a convenient tool for predicting ADAMTS13 activity of ＜10%.Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is widely used as a marker of haemolysis in thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) monitoring, and could be used as a replacement marker for lysis. We aimed to validate the PLASMIC score in a multi-centre Asia Pacific region, and to explore whether LDH could be used as a replacement marker for lysis. Methods: Records of patients with thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) were reviewed. Patients’ ADAMTS13 activity levels were obtained, along with clinical/laboratory findings relevant to the PLASMIC score. Both PLASMIC scores and PLASMIC-LDH scores, in which LDH replaced traditional lysis markers, were calculated. We generated a receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curve and compared the area under the curve values (AUC) to determine the predictive ability of each score. Results: 46 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria, of which 34 had ADAMTS13 activity levels of ＜10%. When the patients were divided into intermediate-to-high risk (scores 5‒7) and low risk (scores 0‒4), the PLASMIC score showed a sensitivity of 97.1% and specificity of 58.3%, with a positive predictive value (PPV) of 86.8% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 87.5%. The PLASMIC-LDH score had a sensitivity of 97.1% and specificity of 33.3%, with a PPV of 80.5% and NPV of 80.0%. Conclusion Our study validated the utility of the PLASMIC score, and demonstrated PLASMIC-LDH as a reasonable alternative in the absence of traditional lysis markers, to help identify high-risk patients for treatment via plasma exchange.