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The seismicity of Romania is mostly represented by earthquakes produced by the Vrancea seismic source with intermediate depth events (3 shocks/century with magnitude MW greater than 7.0). The seismic activity in Romania also includes crustal earthquakes. The crustal seismicity is more scattered and moderate compared to the intermediate-depth one. A stable and automatic method has been implemented in the real-time data acquisition and processing system ANTELOPE to estimate the seismic moment, the moment magnitude and the corner frequency of events recorded by the velocity sensors, using spectral analysis applied to S waves. The main goals are the independent estimation of the seismic moment and the common characterization for all events recorded by the National Seismic Network. The main target of this paper is represented by the fast estimation of moment magnitude MW and ground motion parameters that are derived using Gallo et al. (Bull Earthquake Eng 12:185–202, 2014) methodology and their validation with other magnitude determination algorithms existing at the National Institute for Earth Physics (NIEP). To test this new methodology, we have analyzed 331 seismic events, most of them being automaticaly located, and afterwards added a new, manually processed solution for events with ML ≥ 4.5, to obtain a larger interval of magnitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Childhood obesity has been increasing at a worrisome pace and emerging as a non-infectious pandemic in the pediatric population in recent years. Raising awareness on this problem is of utmost importance, in order to take action to control body weight from an early age. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective study among overweight or obese children evaluated on an outpatient basis in the Department of Pediatric Endocrinology of a tertiary care hospital in Bucharest Romania in 2021 in order to identify laboratory changes occurring according to age and sex. Results: A total of 268 children were included in the analysis, with a median age of 10.9 years (IQR: 8.3, 13.3 years); 61.8% were obese and 38.2% overweight. We identified a subclinical pro-inflammatory status characterized by increased neutrophil count (12.7%) and increased C-reactive protein (16.4%). Biochemically, we identified the highest increases for uric acid (35.4%). More than half of the children included in the study had dyslipidemia-specific changes: high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) (50.0%), low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) (58.9%) and increased triglyceride levels (12.7%), especially children with a body mass-index (BMI) percentile above 95%. Increased thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) was identified in 20.3% and low thyroxine (T4) level in 13.4%, especially in females. Conclusions: Early measures to control excess body weight are needed since preventing obesity is easier than treating it. However, this is often difficult to do in our country because parents frequently do not recognize the problem until it is advanced. Furthermore, doctors are not always adequately prepared and sometimes they do not have the support of the health systems to provide children in need with the adequate care. Educational strategies and awareness of issue should be revisited in current post-pandemic context that facilitates increase of obesity prevalence in children. Increase of efficient communication could be achieved by pointing to these objective findings.

Asthma is the most frequent chronic disease of childhood. In spite of significant improvement of treatment options and diagnostic tools, asthma remains in many patients uncontrolled. The term of "severe asthma" seems to be rather a large umbrella for a heterogeneous group of diseases. This paper is presenting our experience in two respiratory disease clinics that evaluate asthmatic children. Current study was designed to test an algorithm for daily practice in a special group of patients: children with previously diagnosed asthma or recurrent-wheezing, evaluated by family physician or pediatrician as severe disease ("Asthma Decalogue in Children"). Out of 313 referrals (during a six months inclusion time) we had 202 children completing study per-protocol. 49 (22.69%) had severe disease, but only 8 had severe asthma (3.7% of total patients and 18.6% of severe patients). They were older, with less male predominance and with more frequent rhino-conjunctivitis and D vitamin deficiency than other asthmatic children with less severe disease. Asthma Decalogue in Children seems to be an efficient tool to differentiate severe asthma from the rest of children with reactive airway diseases.

Cystic fibrosis ormucoviscidosis (CF) is the most frequent monogenic genetic disease with autosomal dominant transmision in caucasians. Currently, the typical approach is referring the CF patient to specialized centers with multidisciplinary teams. The inherent questions appear: which is then the role of the general practitioner (GP)? Should the GP be confined to the pasive role of exchanging medical letters with the specialist, or should he take active part in monitoring the disease? Is it ethicallyand professionally correct for the GP to simply copy the treatment of a patient that hedidn't actually see for years, or to assume the palliative care in final stages of a patient who was actually taken care of only by the specialist? What are the families' expectations and what is the level of competence they expect from the GP? These are some of the questions we will try to answer, considering the expertise we accumulated in the regional center in "Alfred Rusescu" lnstitute for Protection of Mother and Child, where 16.22% (60 out of 370) of CF patients in Romania are monitored, and based on a questionnaire addressed to the CF patient's families.

The goal of this study is to present the clinical and evolutive features of Pneumocystis infection (PCP) in infants admitted in our clinic. We summarise these aspects from 17 cases (10 male and 7 female infants), admitted between 1st January 2004 and 31st May 2005. PCP infection is rare. It represents 1,5/1000 children (17 cases of 11328 total patients) admitted in our hospital. The risk factors for PCP were age between 6 weeks and 6 months (average 3,38 months) low birth weight (average = 2428 grams), low weight for age, prolonged hospital admission (88,23% of the 17 infants were abandoned in nursery). Only one of them had HIV infection and none presented neoplastic disease. The most prominent clinical aspect was tachypnea (average 78 breath/minute, maximum 130). 16 (94,11%) had difficult breathing with chest in-drawing and flaring of ala nasi. 14 (82,35%) had generalised cyanosis. Only two (11,72%) infants had fever. Radiologic aspects were evocative, with diffuse pulmonary involvement in almost all cases (88,23%). 6 infants (35,29%) had pneumothorax and 2 (11,76%) presented pneumomediastinum. Positive diagnosis was made by microscopic examination of secretions from endotracheal tube aspiration (Grocott methenamine silver stain and Romanowsky stain). 14 infants were ventilated with a good outcome--12 surviving infants (85,7%). All infants had a full course of intravenous Co-trimoxazole. The deceased infants had more risk factors--congenital heart disease 1 case, severe cerebral palsy with organic epilepsy 2 cases. The apparent increase of PCP cases can be related to the number of abandoned children in Romanian pediatric hospitals and nurseries.