George Moll

Factor analysis of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist with a chronically ill pediatric population.

ABSTRACT. The psychometric properties and factor structure of a widely used screening measure for behavioral and emotional dysfunction, the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC), was extended to a population of chronically ill children. Parents of 404 children ranging from 6 to 17 years of age and diagnosed with either insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) or sickle cell disease (SCD) completed the PSC while waiting for a routine medical appointment. The measures internal consistency was found to be high, Cronbachs alpha = .89, and test-retest reliability across 4 months was observed to be acceptable, r = .77. A principal components analysis with an oblique (promax) rotation yielded a four-factor solution with factors that included items representative of internalizing, externalizing, attention, and chronic illness-related problems, respectively. Cronbach alpha estimates ranged from .78 to .83 for the first three factors but was lower for the chronic illness-related problems factor (Cronbachs alpha = .60). A three-factor solution and reliability estimates were recomputed without the chronic illness items that yielded the same reliability estimates for each of the three factors and for the full scale. The three-factor solution was also found to be similar to a published factor structure obtained with a primary care sample, rc = .90-.91. The findings lend support to extending the PSCs clinical utility to tertiary care pediatric settings. Further research is recommended with a broader range of chronic illness groups to increase generalizability.

Factor Analyses of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17 With African-American and Caucasian Pediatric Populations

OBJECTIVES To validate a three-factor model for the Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17 (PSC-17) and evaluate its diagnostic accuracy with African-American and Caucasian children with and without a chronic illness. METHODS Mothers of 723 youth diagnosed with either type I diabetes (n = 210) or sickle cell disease (n = 191) and a nonill peer group (n = 322) completed a demographic questionnaire, the PSC-17, and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). RESULTS Confirmatory factor analyses and tests of measurement invariance validated a three-factor structure for the PSC-17 with African-American and Caucasian youth with and without a chronic illness. Receiver operating characteristic curves revealed optimal cut-off scores that are similar to published reports. CONCLUSIONS A three-factor solution was replicated for the PSC-17 with African-American and Caucasian children with and without a chronic illness. Cut-off scores for identifying children at risk for emotional/behavioral problems were evaluated using the CBCL as the gold standard and are discussed.

Compound heterozygous mutation with a novel splice donor region DNA sequence variant in the succinate dehydrogenase subunit B gene in malignant paraganglioma

Pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma (PGL) are rare neuroendocrine tumors in children. Apparently sporadic cases of PGL may harbor germline mutations in the succinate dehydrogenase (SDHx) gene. SDHB mutations are associated with malignant disease. We report a 13‐year‐old African American boy with diffusely metastatic PGL and compound heterozygous mutation leading to a novel splice donor region DNA sequence variant in the SDHB gene. Family history was positive for non‐classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia and pituitary adenoma. After surgical resection of the primary PGL and chemotherapy, he was treated with metaiodobenzy lguanidine (MIBG) combined with arsenic trioxide. At 3‐year follow‐up, he had stable disease. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2010;54:473–475.

The relationship of maternal erythrocyte oxygen transport parameters to intrauterine growth retardation

The relation of fetal growth and maternal oxygen transport as assessed by red blood cell 2,3-diphosphoglycerate, hemoglobin oxygen affinity, hemoglobin, pH, and PCO2 was evaluated in 21 pregnant women. The study was performed in the third trimester and each subject evaluated had sonographic evidence of fetal growth retardation without other obvious abnormalities. Decreased maternal 2,3-diphosphoglycerate/hemoglobin molar ratio and hemoglobin oxygen affinity were related linearly to the birth weight normalized for the expected sea level values of gestational age expressed as a birth weight (gestational age-normalized) Z score. The correlation coefficients and p values were r = 0.71, p less than 0.001 and r = 0.67, p less than 0.001, respectively. The ponderal index-normalized Z score correlated with the 2,3-diphosphoglycerate/hemoglobin molar ratio (r = 0.46, p less than 0.04), but the relation was not as strong as the birth weight-normalized Z score. The crown-heel length/head circumference ratio did not correlate with the 2,3-diphosphoglycerate/hemoglobin molar ratio (r = 0.29, NS). The birth weight (gestational age)-normalized Z score did not correlate with hemoglobin, PCO2, or pH. In the regulation of hemoglobin oxygen affinity, calculations indicated that the 2,3-diphosphoglycerate/hemoglobin molar ratio played a highly significant role (p less than 0.001), pH was minimally significant (p less than 0.025), but PCO2 had little or no significant effects in this study. It appears that fetal growth is related to the maternal red blood cell oxygen transport parameters 2,3-diphosphoglycerate/hemoglobin molar ratio and hemoglobin oxygen affinity. Moreover, the 2,3-diphosphoglycerate/hemoglobin molar ratio is the principal regulator of hemoglobin oxygen affinity.

CF Patient’s Pneumothoraxes Unique Genes

Creative Commons CC-BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). Brief Report