Methods: A total of 42 patients with congenital heart defects, as confirmed by echocardiography, were recruited. Genetic molecular analysis using a fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique was conducted as part of routine 22q11.2DS screening, followed by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA), which serves as a confirmatory test.
Results: Two of the 42 CHD cases (4.76%) indicated the presence of 22q11.2DS, and interestingly, both cases have conotruncal heart defects. In terms of concordance of techniques used, MLPA is superior since it can detect deletions within the 22q11.2 locus and outside of the typically deleted region (TDR) as well as duplications.
Conclusion: The incidence of 22q11.2DS among patients with CHD in the east coast of Malaysia is 0.047. MLPA is a scalable and affordable alternative molecular diagnostic method in the screening of 22q11.2DS and can be routinely applied for the diagnosis of deletion syndromes.
METHODS: Medical records of hospitalized children from January 2020 to June 2021 with acute respiratory illness who received a FilmArray RP for respiratory pathogens were reviewed and compared with data from diagnosis-matched patients without receiving the test.
RESULTS: In total, 283 patients and 150 diagnosis-matched controls were included. Single pathogen was detected in 84.3% (193/229) of the patients. The most common pathogen was human rhinovirus/enterovirus (31.6%, 84/266), followed by respiratory syncytial virus (18.8%, 50/266) and adenovirus (15%, 40/266). Although antimicrobial days of therapy (DOT) was significantly longer in FilmArray group than the control [7.1 ± 4.9 days vs 5.7 ± 2.7 days, P = 0.002], the former showed a higher intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate (3.9% vs 0%; P = 0.010). All ICU admissions were in FilmArray RP-positive group. There was no difference in antimicrobial DOT between FilmArray RP-positive and the negative groups, in all admissions, even after excluding ICU admissions. Antimicrobial DOT was shorter in the positive than negative group in patients with lower respiratory tract infections without admission to ICU [median (IQR): 6 (4-9) days vs 9 (4-12) days, P = 0.047].
CONCLUSIONS: Shorter antimicrobial DOTs were identified in children with lower respiratory tract infection admitted to general pediatric ward and with an identifiable respiratory pathogen, indicating a role of the multiplex PCR in reducing antimicrobial use for children with respiratory tract infection.