Copyright 2004 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved. Applicable FARS/DFARS Restrictions Apply to Government Use.
The 3 studies of bronchiolitis reported in the February issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine1 - 3 demonstrate the disconnect between the evidence and the practice of pediatrics in America.
The study of Mull et al1 comparing epinephrine and albuterol sulfate found no important difference in efficacy. They assert that both medications "work." The treatment groups were blinded. But since there was no placebo group, a placebo effect of medications (on the physicians) cannot be ruled out. The Respiratory Distress Assessment Instrument is the most subjective and showed the most medication effect. The respiratory rate is perhaps less subjective, and it did go down some. The mean room air oxygen saturation should be the least subjective assessment and that got worse with treatment according to Figure 4. However, they reported a "significant improvement" in this. Does that represent an error?
Mull et al state that taking chest radiographs and performing respiratory syncytial virus testing were left to the discretion of the emergency department physician but were not reported. They also state, "Although it is likely that a benefit of epinephrine therapy would have been demonstrated had it been compared with placebo, we believe it would have been inappropriate to compare epinephrine with a placebo."1 (p118)
These 2 statements contradict the conclusions of the next 2 reports by Bordley et al2 and King et al3 in that same issue. We should not do any more comparisons of bronchodilators until it can be shown that any is beneficial.
Correspondence: Dr DiTraglia, Pediatrics, 717 Fifth St, Portsmouth, OH 45662 (jditrag@zoomnet.net).
Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
Instructions
Comments are moderated and will appear on the site at the discretion of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine editors. Comments should not exceed 500 words of text and 10 references.
Do not submit personal medical questions or information that could identify a specific patient, questions about a particular case, or general inquiries to an author. Only content that has not been published, posted, or submitted elsewhere should be submitted. By submitting this Comment, you and any coauthors transfer copyright to the journal if your Comment is posted.
* = Required Field
Disclosure of Any Conflicts of Interest* Indicate all relevant conflicts of interest of each author below, including all relevant financial interests, activities, and relationships within the past 3 years including, but not limited to, employment, affiliation, grants or funding, consultancies, honoraria or payment, speakers’ bureaus, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, royalties, donation of medical equipment, or patents planned, pending, or issued. If all authors have none, check "No potential conflicts or relevant financial interests" in the box below. Please also indicate any funding received in support of this work. The information will be posted with your response.
Register and get free email Table of Contents alerts, saved searches, PowerPoint downloads, CME quizzes, and more
Subscribe for full-text access to content from 1998 forward and a host of useful features
Activate your current subscription (AMA members and current subscribers)
Some tools below are only available to our subscribers or users with an online account.
Download citation file:
Web of Science® Times Cited: 2
Customize your page view by dragging & repositioning the boxes below.
and access these and other features:
Register Now
Enter your username and email address. We'll send you a reminder to the email address on record.
Athens and Shibboleth are access management services that provide single sign-on to protected resources. They replace the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Athens or Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password.