Dipstick diagnoses . . . and other stories

Diagnosing urinary tract infections in infantsDipstick urinalysis is both sensitive and specific when used for diagnosing urinary tract infections in febrile infants aged less than 3 months. That’s the conclusion of a study of 275 cases attending emergency departments in the UK and Ireland. The most sensitive individual dipstick indicator of urinary tract infection was the presence of leucocytes. The most specific indicator was the presence of nitrites (Arch Dis Child doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2022-324300).Mask wearing for deaf peopleLip reading becomes impossible when people are wearing face masks. Sign language is compromised too, because facial expression is an important part of conveying meaning. In an essay in The Atlantic, a deaf person explains that, without lip reading, she couldn’t wing it as a hearing person and even trivial encounters required her to explain her disability. On the plus side, she learnt to use smartphone apps with voice recognition and easy-to-read text displays…
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