[Reconciliation of Family and Work Life in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics - Systematic Assessment in Different Occupational Groups of a German University Hospital]

Reconciliation of family and work life is an important topic for employees. Due to common work in shifts within the health care sector, this is even more essential for health care workers and has great implications in work satisfaction and individuals ́ health. Within all employees of the department of OB/GYN of the German university hospital Ulm, an anonymous and voluntary survey on compatibility of work and family was performed in the summer of 2017. The questionnaires consisted of established and newly designed tools to assess reconciliation of family/work life as well as work-family (WFC) and family-work conflict (FWC). Return rate of questionnaires was 63% (n=136). Physicians (n=33), nurses (n=53), and midwives (n=31) were grouped together as "medical staff" (n=115). There was no significant difference between employees with (n=73) or without children (n=59) regarding WFC and FWC. The group of nurses/midwives and the group of physicians had a significantly higher inter-role conflict (p<0.001) than the group of administrative staff. A negative correlation with "work satisfaction" was found for WFC and FWC. The group of nurses/midwives has significantly higher inter-role conflicts than the administrative staff. Especially the negative correlation of work satisfaction and inter-role conflicts shows the enormous need for improvement in sufficient compatibility of work and family life of employees in the health care sector. This needs to be addressed quickly and effectively as there is an alarming deficit of nurses and midwives in the German health care system.

Cerebellar location may predict an unfavourable prognosis in paediatric high-grade glioma

Background:

High-grade glioma (HGG) of the cerebellum accounts for only 5% of paediatric HGG. Since little is known about these tumours, the present study aimed at their further characterisation.

Methods:

Twenty-nine paediatric patients with centrally reviewed cerebellar HGG were identified from the HIT-GBM/HIT-HGG database. Clinical and epidemiological data were compared with those of 180 paediatric patients with cortical HGG.

Results:

Patients with cerebellar tumours were younger (median age of 7.6 vs 11.7 years, P=0.028), but both groups did not differ significantly with regard to gender, tumour predisposing syndromes, secondary HGG, primary metastasis, tumour grading, extent of tumour resection, chemotherapy regimen, or radiotherapy. Except for an increased incidence of anaplastic pilocytic astrocytoma (APA) in the cerebellar subset (20.7% vs 3.3% P<0.001), histological entities were similarly distributed in both groups. As expected, tumour grading had a prognostic relevance on survival. Compared with cortical HGG, overall survival in the cerebellar location was significantly worse (median overall survival: 0.92±0.02 vs 2.03±0.32 years; P=0.0064), and tumour location in the cerebellum had an independent poor prognostic significance as shown by Cox-regression analysis (P=0.019).

Conclusion:

High-grade glioma represents a group of tumours with an obviously site-specific heterogeneity associated with a worse survival in cerebellar location.

[Hemiparesis in acute lymphoblastic leukemia]

The case of an adolescent female patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and stroke-like hemiparesis demonstrates a typical manifestation of methotrexate-induced acute encephalopathy. This rare entity occurs both in children and adults and can result from intrathecal as well as high dose intravenous administration of methotrexate. Diagnosis can confidently be made using cerebral MRI including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), so that patients can be informed about the favorable prognosis.

[Acute lymphoblastic leukemia presenting without peripheral blasts but with osteolysis and hypercalcemia in an adolescent. Atypical but not rare]

Joint pain is one of the major symptoms in early leukemia. We report on a 16-year-old girl who presented with groin pain and an osteolytic bone lesion. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia was diagnosed, but the laboratory workup and radiologic imaging revealed atypical results. Particularly in early precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, comparable initial symptoms and signs have been reported in adolescents; therefore, we recommend performing a bone marrow aspiration early on in cases of suspected osteolytic bone lesions.

[Coincidence of Graves' disease and Angelman syndrome in a 13 month old boy]

Both in Angelman-Syndrome and Graves' disease somatic and psychomotoric retardation, agitation and sleep disorder are major symptoms and signs. We report on the coincidence of both diseases in a 13 month old boy. Due to the overlapping pathology physicians should take special care on symptoms and signs of thyroid dysfunction in children with Angelman-Syndrome. In the case of coincidence a delayed diagnosis and treatment of hyperthyroidism could be avoided.