Category Archives: Common

Medically unexplained symptoms

Clinical, Common, General paediatrics, Mental health, OPD, Psychology

“Persistent physical symptoms” preferred term? Chronic pain overlaps.

“Functional disorder” is used for various gastro and neurological problems, preferred by some adults, but needs explained!

Chronic fatigue syndrome and PANDAS are health disorders that appear to have a physical/scientific cause but disputed.

Health anxiety, malingering, or factitious illness, different from a psychological point of view.

Bleed the symptoms dry! [John Stone, Glasgow].

In a 1965 paper by Eliot Slater, more than half of patients diagnosed as having “hysteria” later turned out to have “organic” disease – but John Stone’s study of adult neurology referrals found very few who turned out to have an occult disease.

Louise Stone in Australia has done a lot of work in primary care. She identifies negative feelings and a lack of diagnostic language and frameworks as barriers to managing these patients effectively. The negative feelings (such as frustration, shame and helplessness), are shared between doctors and patients…

Managing your own feelings and frustrations, and finding ways of understanding and managing the therapeutic relationship important.

Let family feel validated for all concerns – at least in the first instance. Helps develop a therapeutic alliance.

Commit to the patient, which includes advocacy and support.

Family response to symptoms?

Explore beliefs, specific worries (eg cancer). May then allow broadening out to more general worries. 

Manage uncertainty – including managing the need for a disease name! Not having a predictable outcome is hard.

Harm minimisation. Shift from diagnosis to coping with ongoing symptoms.

Good to offer a tentative preamble to difficult conversations! “This is something we as doctors have to deal with every day – signs and symptoms that are very real, with a real impact on a child/family, but where physical examination and investigations do not offer any clues to what the underlying problem might be…”

Paed psychology if issues mostly seem related to child and this is a new problem; CAMHS if new problem adding to existing child/parent issues.  

Can be rewarding in the long term!

[Louise Stone, Aust Fam Physician 2013 Jul;42(7):501-2]

Keratosis pilaris

Common, Dermatology, General paediatrics

Common (familial) – rough, bumpy skin on upper arms, usually asymptomatic but cosmetically not great. Follicular plugging, basically.

Can get quite inflamed in some people.

Exfoliating, moisturizing may help.

Sometimes goes with inflamed cheeks – Keratosis pilaris rubra faciei, so typical KP of the arms (often perifollicular redness), but can lead to hair loss and atrophy of eyebrows and scalp. 

Urea containing (Balneum, Hydromol Intensive, Eucerin intensive) creams or salicylic acid (in zinc oxide) paste may help. Topical steroids can be tried if very red but risky for face, given tendency to atrophy anyway.

Threadworms

Common, General paediatrics, Infectious disease, OPD

=enterobius. Common in young children, probably due to hygiene issues. Also called pinworms. Small (1-2cm), like white threads. Can be intensely itchy, usually in night when worms emerge to lay eggs.

Mebendazole effective at killing live worms in gut, not effective if eggs in vagina. Licensed from age 2 but can be used off license below that. Does not kill eggs however, and main issue is reinfection so consider treating whole family, with repeat doses after 2 weeks when any eggs will have hatched. NHS Inform advice on hygiene:

  • Lifespan of threadworms is approximately 6 weeks, so follow hygiene measures for at least this length of time.
  • Everyone in the household must follow the advice outlined below.
  • Wash all night clothes, bed linen, towels and soft toys (normal temperatures OK but make sure the washing is well rinsed [presumably at start of treatment; dilution more important than soap?]
  • Vacuum and dust the whole house esp bedrooms – repeat regularly
  • Clean bathroom and kitchen surfaces – again, rinse cloth frequently – repeat regularly
  • Avoid shaking out clothes/bedding that may be contaminated with eggs, to prevent eggs being transferred to other surfaces
  • Don’t eat food in the bedroom
  • Keep fingernails short
  • Discourage nail-biting and sucking fingers/thumbs
  • Wash hands frequently and scrub under your fingernails esp before eating, after going to the toilet, and before and after changing your baby’s nappy
  • wear close-fitting underwear at night and change your underwear every morning
  • bathe or shower regularly – it’s particularly important to bathe or shower first thing in the morning: make sure you clean around your anus and vagina to remove any eggs
  • don’t share towels
  • keep toothbrushes in a closed cupboard and rinse them thoroughly before use!

Eggs probably become unviable after a few days if not in warm and moist environment… Children may of course pick up another threadworm infection from school/nursery…

Sometimes you just have to keep repeating treatment over months/years! Mebendazole is harmless (v little systemic absorption), although symptoms may be caused by clearance of large worm burdens.

Urinary tract infection

Common, General paediatrics, Infectious disease, Renal

Upper, lower, atypical, recurrent – all have specific definitions;

Diagnosis is ideally by culture – minimum of 1.25 ml, pref 2.5ml of urine in a 7ml red top boric acid container. White top only acceptable if received at lab on same day or day before, within hospital. Collection method important, ideally clean catch.

But given delay in getting culture result, urinalysis more practical, if less sensitive/specific. Nitrites have high positive predictive value so treatment usually started pending culture. Microscopy (for white cells and bacteria) is routinely done in infants under 3 months but needs to be requested between 3 months and 3 years. Greater than 100 wcc or 1000 organisms considered “numerous”, above 40 wcc or 500 organisms “moderate”.

Transition

Common, General paediatrics, OPD

Jargon for the process of transferring care of child to adult services, or to independent self management.

Paediatricians famously bad at discussing issues such as sex, drugs, alcohol, careers! And famously bad at seeing young people one to one, without parents present!

Raise contraception as soon as puberty comes up in clinic!? But remember that complications of pregnancy probably a bigger issue to discuss!

Ready, steady, go! is RCPCH document on the general principles, whereby you assess readiness for transition, and aim to provide information in an appropriate format (typically in small chunks) and at the right time (young person led). Then ideally one or more joint clinics with adult service, if appropriate.

Scarlet Fever

Common, General paediatrics, Infectious disease

Has Victorian connotations as fatal epidemics of Scarlet fever swept through slums in the pre-antibiotic era.

Group A streptococcus pyogenes is still carried in up to 20% of young children’s throats. Disease peaks in winter and spring (cool conditions, and more time indoors?). Spread easily through saliva.

Scarlet fever (scarlatina is usually used for mild cases) is when an exotoxin is produced, that causes fever and rash. Characteristic features are:

  • Strawberry tongue – progresses from white coated, to red, beefy tongue as coating lifts.
  • Perioral pallor
  • Fiery, widespread rash – rough “sandpaper” feel characteristic
  • Pastia’s lines – lines of petechiae in creases esp wrists, elbows
  • Palatal petechiae (“Forchheimer spots”) – not specific, also measles. 
  • As rash fades, desquamation can occur, particularly on fingers/toes. Should only happen once in lifetime, as antibodies form to toxin!?

No longer notifiable in Scotland, cf England/Wales.

Complications can still be severe of course, as with any group A strep disease:

Benefit of antibiotic treatment just ½ day symptoms! But without treatment would need to exclude from nursery/school for 14 days!!! Else after 24hrs antibiotics.

No resistance to penicillin and low MIC so preferred. 10 day course of whichever antibiotic recommended (for clearance from throat, as opposed to clinical improvement), with exception of azithromycin (5 days).

Other antibiotics eg clindamycin may be chosen however if invasive disease.

Asthma and allergy stereotypes

Common, General paediatrics, Respiratory

Le Chiffre in Casino Royale may use a custom metal inhaler, but the implication is clear – he is not as masculine as James Bond.

“Mikey from “The Goonies,” who is portrayed as vulnerable and nervous and is seen taking puffs from his inhaler whenever a situation is particularly scary. Stevie from “Malcolm in the Middle” who suffers from severe asthma can barely make it through a sentence without gasping for breath and wheezing uncontrollably.

“Though he is also proclaimed a genius, it is this perceived weakness that becomes his defining characteristic.

“The stereotype even translates to cartoons, with Carl Wheezer from “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” and Millhouse from “The Simpsons” represented as weak and timid individuals who are used as comic relief whenever they are upset and need a puff from an inhaler to control their symptoms triggered by anxiety.” [American lung association blog]

In the film Hitch, the lovable accountant Alfred uses his inhaler when he is scared to take action.  Until he is inspired to greater manliness, and he throws it away and mounts the steps to kiss his girl in passion, no longer shackled by his psychological, rather than medical, condition. [https://mbtimetraveler.com/tag/asthma-portrayal-in-television-and-movies/]

Even JK Rowling is guilty – see her TV show “The casual vacancy”.

Stephen King’s It has a hypochondriac asthmatic character Eddie Kaspbrak – although at least there is a genuinely terrifying scene where he has an asthma attack and his inhaler has run out – but even this has been triggered by bullying, enforcing the “nerd” stereotype.

Wheezy in Toy Story 2 is also a rather pathetic character.

Positive role models lacking. David Beckham and Harry Styles are some of the few.

Children with asthma, not surprisingly, are highly sceptical of such portrayals. Non asthmatic children obviously don’t appraise movie scenes for their meanings but they do judge the social context of the drama [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22574393/]

Few if any other medical conditions seem to get the same treatment…

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Common, Gastro, General paediatrics

Rome IV classification gives definition as:

Recurrent abdominal pain, at least once per week for at least 3 months, associated with at least 2 of:

  • Associated with defecation
  • Change in bowel frequency
  • Change in stool form/appearance

Bloating has been removed from diagnostic criteria as it has no predictive value, being common across all kinds of GI issues.

Subtypes then based on stool form on symptomatic days – predominantly constipation, predominantly diarrhoea, mixed constipation/diarrhoea.

Normal physical examination supports diagnosis. Tests should include FBC to exclude iron deficiency anaemia, CRP for IBD, TTG antibody for coeliac disease.

Management

Trial of lactose, fructose and wheat free diet if suspected link to consumption of these foods (non coeliac gluten sensitivity occurs).

Low FODMAP diet is challenging but can help – should be supervised by dietician.

Reassurance – making diagnosis helps justify not investigating fruitlessly.

[J Clin Med 2017]

Liver Function Tests

Clinical, Common, General paediatrics

Bilirubin needs to be around 60 to see visible jaundice. Isolated high bilirubin could be haemolysis or Gilbert syndrome.

AST is less specific than ALT – also produced in kidney, brain etc. But perhaps changes more quickly than ALT. Most important other source of AST and ALT is muscle – so check CK too, especially if bilirubin normal. Myopathies, viral myositis, muscular dystrophy can all present with “abnormal LFTs”.

Gamma GT is also found in other tissues so not 100% specific but typically suggests cholestasis or other biliary problem (together with alkaline phosphatase).

Alkaline phosphatase also produced in bone, so look at calcium, phosphate and vitamin D as well as signs of rickets or renal disease. Most common cause of isolated high alkaline phosphatase is benign transient hyperphosphatasaemia. There is a rare inherited disease of bone/tooth mineralisation, hypophosphatasia, where levels of ALP are abnormally low;  more commonly though, goes high or low depending on current growth. Low ALP is associated with severe chronic illness, malnutrition, or EDTA/citrate contamination, magnesium/zinc deficiency, coeliac disease, oestrogen use and hypothyroidism.

Falling transaminases can be ominous in situation of bilirubin, albumin, coagulation deteriorating…