Objective:To summarize the clinical characteristics of suicidal behavior in children and provide a reference for further developing strategies for preventing childhood suicide.Methods:The medical records of children hospitalized in the pediatric intensive care unit（PICU）at Beijing Children's Hospital for suicidal behavior in the electronic medical record system from January 1,2018,to December 31,2022 were retrospectively selected.Clinical data of children with suicidal behavior were collected.Results:A total of 3 249 patients were admitted to the PICU,including 62 suicide patients.There were 20(32.3%) males,and 42(67.7%) females,with a male-to-female ratio of 1:2.1.The average age was (13.1 ± 1.5) years old,with a minimum age of 7.9 years and a maximum age of 15.7 years.There were 17 (27.4%) children with previously diagnosed mental illnesses.Notably 58.1% children had triggering factors for suicidal behavior.Analysis of suicide methods,53(85.5%) cases were intentional drug ingestion,six(9.7%) cases were jumping from height,and three(4.8%) cases were hanging.Additionally 26.4% cases of poisoning were male,while 66.7% of cases of jumping from height and hanging were male.There was a statistical difference in suicide methods between genders (χ 2=5.704, P=0.025).The poisoning ingestions were classified as 20(37.7%) cases of toxins; 14(26.4%) cases of antidepressants; 10(18.9%) cases of over-the-counter drugs; five(9.4%) cases of other prescription drugs; three(5.7%) cases of sedative drugs; one(1.9%) case of daily chemical.Sources of ingestions: 18(34.0%) cases were purchased personally (pharmacies or online shopping); 16(30.2%) cases were storing medicines at home; 13(24.5%) cases were daily taking antidepressants.Compared with non-poisoning patients,poisoning patients had a significantly shorter PICU duration (Z=-2.884, P=0.004).The total mortality rate of children admitted to PICU due to suicide was 16.1%(10/62).There was a statistical difference in the mortality rate among different suicide methods (χ 2=7.883, P=0.019). Conclusion:School aged children and boys are more likely to choose impulsive and more harmful suicide behaviors such as jumping from heights and hanging,and adolescent girls are more likely to choose intentional poisoning as their suicide method.Attention should be paid to the suicide risk of different age and gender groups.Intentional drug ingestion is the main method of suicide in children.Herbicide poisoning and antidepressant drug poisoning are the leading causes of suicide death.The death risk of suicidal behavior in children may be reduced by controlling the way of getting pesticides (especially herbicides) and obtaining maximum doses of antidepressants.

Objective:To summarize the clinical characteristics and prognosis of severe infant botulism and evaluate the therapeutic effect of botulinum antitoxin in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).Methods:The clinical data of 8 cases diagnosed with infantile botulism were retrospectively analyzed in the PICU of Beijing Children′s Hospital from October 2019 to August 2023. Data of basic demographic information, clinical manifestations, laboratory tests, treatment and prognosis of each child were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistical methods.Results:Eight laboratory-confirmed cases of infant botulism were included in this study, all of which were male infants with an age of 6.0 (3.3,6.8) months. Three of the children were from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 2 of them were from Hebei, and the other 3 were from Beijing, Shandong and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, respectively. All the patients were previously healthy. In 4 of these cases, the possible cause was the ingestion of either honey and its products or sealed pickled food by the mother or child before the onset of the disease. The first symptom was poor milk intake (4 cases), followed by shallow shortness of breath (7 cases), limb weakness (7 cases) and so on. The typical signs were bilateral dilated pupils (8 cases) and decreased limb muscle strength (8 cases). The main subtype was type B (7 cases), and only 1 case was classified as type A. Six of the children were treated with antitoxin therapy for a duration of 24 (19, 49) d. Seven of them had invasive mechanical ventilation. All the patients survived upon discharge with a follow-up period of 29 d to 3 years and 8 months. Six patients had fully recovered, and 2 recently discharged patients were gradually recovering.Conclusions:For infants with suspected contact or ingestion of botulinum and presented with bilateral pupillary paralysis, muscle weakness and clear consciousness, the stool should be collected for diagnostic testing using a mouse bioassay as soon as possible. Type B was the most common type. The antitoxin treatment was effectiveness and the prognosis was well.

This article reviews the concept and current situation, assessment tools, influencing factors, intervention measures, shortcomings, and prospects of sense of coherence in cancer patients, so as to provide reference and direction for subsequent research on sense of coherence in cancer patients.

Objective:To identify clinical characteristics of slit ventricle syndrome (SVS) in children, thus improving pediatricians′ understanding of pediatric SVS.Methods:Clinical data of children diagnosed as SVS in the Emergency Department of Beijing Children′s Hospital, Capital Medical University from June 2015 to May 2019 were collected and retrospectively analyzed.Results:A total of 10 children with SVS were included, including 3 cases of arachnoid cyst, 3 cases of congenital hydrocephalus, 2 cases of Dandy-Walker syndrome, 1 case of idiopathic intracranial hypertension syndrome, and 1 case of hydrocephalus secondary to intracranial hemorrhage as the primary disease.The age of first shunting, and that at diagnosis of SVS were 1.3 (0.3-12.8) years, and 9.9 (3.8-13.3) years, respectively.SVS-associated symptoms appeared in 4.4 (0.5-12.0) years after shunting, including intermittent headache (10/10 cases), vomiting (10/10 cases), irritability (4/10 cases), seizures (5/10 cases), diminution of vision (2/10 cases), and intracranial hypertension (10/10 cases) at varying severities.When SVS occurred, the cerebral ventricle presented slit-like morphology.Three cases were relieved with mannitol treatment and 7 cases were treated with emergency lumbar-peritoneal shunt after mannitol failure.During 1-5 years of follow-up, 9 patients did not have SVS-associated symptoms and 1 case with medical therapy had recurrences.Conclusions:SVS is a rare complication after shunt surgery, with the clinical manifestations of intermittent headache and slow valve refilling conforming; imaging showed that the cerebral ventricle was slit-like morphology.When there are signs of intracranial hypertension after shunting and there is no cerebral ventricle dilatation in imaging, SVS should be highly vigilant.Once SVS is confirmed, surgical intervention should be introduced as early as possible after treatment failure of medication, so as to improve the prognosis.

Objective:To investigate the effectiveness of ketamine in the treatment of refractory status epilepticus (RSE) and super refractory status epilepticus (SRSE) in children.Methods:A retrospective study was conducted to collect and analyze the medical data of 18 children with RSE or SRSE who received ketamine in intensive care unit of Beijing Children′s Hospital from January 2016 to December 2018. According to the different regimen of ketamine, all children were divided into the loading-maintenance group (7 cases) and the maintenance group (11 cases). According to the control of status epilepticus, the patients were divided into controlled group (11 cases) and non-responsive group (7 cases).Wilcoxon′s rank sum test or Fisher′s exact test were used to compare the effectiveness between groups.Results:There were 9 males and 9 females in the study group, aged 6.7 (4.5, 9.0) years. Seven cases had RSE and the remaining had SRSE. Four cases died during hospitalization. After the initiation of ketamine treatment, RSE and SRSE were controlled in 11 children. The duration of ketamine administration was 4 (2, 11) days. The dose was 2.2 (1.2, 5.3) mg/(kg·h) in all patients, and 2.4 (1.3, 6.0) mg/(kg·h), 2.0 (1.0, 4.0) mg/(kg · h) in the controlled and non-responsive group, respectively ( Z=-0.272, P=0.791). The RSE or SRSE were terminated in all the 7 patients who received loading dose of ketamine, with the dose of 1.5 (0.3,1.6) mg/kg. In the 11 patients who only received maintenance treatment, 4 had the RSE and SRSE terminated, which showed a significantly lower effectiveness than in loading-maintenance group (7/7 vs. 4/11, P=0.01). Regarding the adverse reactions, saliva secretion increased in 8 children during the ketamine administration, otherwise unremarkable. Conclusion:Loading dose followed by maintenance of ketamine can control children′s RSE and SRSE well, without significant adverse reactions.

Objective To analyze the cause of fatal cases in children with confirmed influenza virus infection,and in order to improve the level of diagnosis and treatment.Methods Deaths in critical illness of influenza were collected from November 2017 to April 2018 in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of Beijing Children's Hospital,Capital Medical University.The clinical characteristics and causes of death were retrospectively analyzed according to the different virus types.Results A total of 19 cases were included.Fifteen cases (78.95％) were less than 5 years old and 9 cases (47.37％) were less than 2 years old.On admission,the median score of pediatric index of mortality 2 was 72.7％.There were 11 cases of influenza H1N1 and 8 cases of influenza B.Six cases had underlying diseases.All patients had fever,cough and dyspnea.Thirteen patients had coma.Seventeen cases had pneumonia,11 cases had severe acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS),3 cases had air leakage syndrome and 8 cases had influenza-related encephalopathy(IAE).Ten cases (52.63％) died of severe ARDS,7 cases (36.84％) died of IAE,1 case(5.26％) died of multiple organ dysfunction,and 1 case(5.26％)died of severe myocarditis and cardiogenic shock.There was statistical difference in the time from onset to death between the ARDS group and IAE group[15(4,22) d vs.3(2,8) d] (Z =-2.063,P =0.039).Among the children who died of severe ARDS,most patients in influenza H1 N1 group ＜ 2 years old,while those influenza B group ≥ 2 years old.All children who died of IAE were all ≥ 1 years old.Six cases (31.58％) had bacterial infection,mainly gram-positive cocci.All patients were treated with neuraminidase inhibitors.The average time from onset to the first time of medication was 5 days.Conclusions Severe ARDS and IAE are the main causes of death in children with influenza virus infection.Compared with ARDS,the condition of children with IAE worsened more rapidly.

Objective To summarize the clinical features and technical key points on brain death during decision-made process in children with suspected brain death.Methods Twenty-four coma children with Glasgow coma scale score 3 and no spontaneous respiration were collected from May 2015 to February 2017 in Beijing Children's Hospital,Capital Medical University to make the brain death determination.All children received at least one confirmatory test.According to the Chinese standards for determining brain death (pediatric),all patients were divided into brain death group and non-compliance group.The clinical features were analyzed.The sensitivity,specificity,false positive rate and false negative rate of electroencephalogram (EEG),short latency somatosensory evoked potential (SLSEP) and transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) were calculated.Results Among these 24 cases,there were 16 males and 8 females,aged 5.6 (2.0,8.8) years old.Ten cases met the criteria of brain death.Twelve (50％,12/24 cases) cases received autonomic breathing test.A total of 25 tests were conducted,of which 21 were successful.The completion rates of EEG,TCD and SLSEP were 100.0％ (24/24 cases),83.3 ％ (20/24 cases) and 54.2％ (13/24 cases),respectively.EEG had the highest sensitivity (100％) and specificity (79％).SLSEP had good sensitivity (100％),but the specificity was only 40％.The combination of EEG with SLSEP had the highest specificity and sensitivity,both of which were 100％,and the false positive rate and false negative rate were 0.Conclusions The key to determine brain death successfully is to make adequate preparations,to receive formal training and to apply standard operation.In the determination of brain death in children,EEG has a good sensitivity and specificity in single confirmation test,which is the priority item.The combination of EEG with SLSEP is the most advantageous.

Objective: To analyze the clinical characteristics of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children under five years of age and analyze the safety and efficiency of nasal continuous positive airway pressure (NCPAP) ventilation for CAP in this population. Method: This was a prospective multicenter study. Children who were admitted to these six centers with CAP and met the NCPAP ventilation indications, aged from 29 d to 5 years, were continuously included during November 2013 to October 2015. The baseline data were collected and NCPAP ventilation were then followed up by operation standards, and the vital signs and arterial blood gas change at special time points were observed and recorded. Any side effect associated with NCPAP were recorded. For categorical variables, comparisons were performed using Fisher test. Rank-sum test and t test were performed respectively for abnormal and normal distribution continuous variables. The variables pre-NCPAP and post-NCPAP were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA analysis. Result: Totally 145 children were included, and 13 children were excluded due to incomplete data. One hundred and two children(77.3%)were ≤12 months; 91 children (68.9%) were from rural area. NCPAP ventilation was effective in 123 children, with a response rate of 93.2%, were all discharged with a better condition; it was ineffective in 9 children(6.8%), and they were all intubated and went on mechanical ventilation, 5 were discharged with a better condition, and 4 died after gaving up treatment. The gender, age, body weight, residence, main symptoms, main signs, imaging diagnosis, medications, partial pressure of oxygen(PaO₂), breath and heart rate before NCPAP treatment of two groups had no significant differences(allP>0.05). The rates of combining underlying diseases, trouble with feeding and cyanosis, and the partial pressure of carbon dioxide(PaCO₂ ) before NCPAP ventilation were higher in NCPAP ineffective group ((59±11 )vs.( 49±11) mmHg, 1 mmHg=0.133 kPa, t=-2.597, P=0.028); while the PaO₂/fraction of inspiration O₂ (FiO₂ ) before NCPAP was lower((150±37) vs. (207±63) mmHg, t=2.697, P=0.008). The breathing, heart rate and PaCO₂ of NCPAP effective group decreased significantly, while the PaO₂ and PaO₂/FiO₂ increased significantly after 2, 8, 24 h of NCPAP ventilation(all P=0.000). PaCO₂ in children with hypercapnia before NCPAP ventilation in NCPAP effective group decreased significantly ((48±9), (47±12), (45±11)vs.(58±7)mmHg, all P=0.000). All children tolerated well to NCPAP ventilation, and there were no severe side effects or complications associated with NCPAP ventilation. Conclusion NCPAP ventilation is safe and effectively improved the oxygenation and hypercapnia in infants with CAP. But it may not work well in children with underlying diseases, manifest as difficulty in feeding/cyanosis and extremely high PaCO₂ or low PaO₂/FiO₂, and they may need early intubation.

Child ; Continuous Positive Airway Pressure ; Humans ; Pediatrics

Objective To investigate the clinical features of invasive pneumococcal disease(IPD) in pediatric intensive care unit(PICU) and to analyze outcomes,so as to provide evidence for early and reasonable diagnosis and treatment as well as to improvement of prognosis.Methods A retrospective study was conducted at a research center for IPD in PICU in Beijing Children's Hospital from January 2013 to April 2016.Clinical data of children with IPD were collected and analyzed.All specimens were for bacteria culture,isolation,strain identification and drug sensitivity test.At the same time,the quellung test was used to identify serotypes of the streptococcus pneumoniae.Results A total of 30 children meeting inclusion criteria were included,19 male and 11 female.The median age was 1.5 years (range 3 months to 7.5 years).The Pediatric Critical Illness Scores (PCIS) were 72 (64,82) scores.There were 13 cases whose Glasgow Coma Scores (GCS) were below 15 scores.The 28-day mortality rate was 36.7％ (11/30 cases).Among death cases,there were 7 cases of purulent meningitis,3 cases of septicemia and 1 case of purulent pleurisy.The onset age,peripheral blood leucocytes count,PCIS and GCS of death group were significantly lower than those of survival group (all P ＜ 0.05).The mortality rate of children complicated with septic shock was significantly higher than that of children without septic shock [75.0％ (6/8 cases) vs 22.7 ％ (5/22 cases),P ＜ 0.05].The most common serotypes were 19F and 19A.The coverage rate of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine 13 was 96.7％.The percentage of penicillin nonsusceptible streptococcus pneumoniae was 73.3％,and the percentage of penicillin resistant streptococcus pneumoniae was 53.3％,and multi-drug resistant was 90％.Conclusions The mortality rate of IPD in PICU is high,and the main serotypes were 19F and 19A.Most patients of death group were less than 2 years old.Peripheral blood white blood cell count,PCIS and GCS were significantly reduced,and more complicated with septic shock.Vaccination of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine 13 for children less than 2 years old may reduce the incidence of IPD.