To the Editor. — There seems to be a resurgence of vitamin D (vitD) deficiency rickets in the United States.1–3 Decreasing sunlight exposure,4 an increasing number of women breastfeeding, and increasing maternal vitD deficiency1,5 are certainly some of the factors responsible for this resurgence. We postulated that a decline in the number of pediatricians who recommend vitD supplementation for breastfed infants might be another contributing factor. A questionnaire was mailed to all active members of the North Carolina Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to determine their vitD supplementation practices in October, 1999. Of the 1040 questionnaires, 417 (40.1%) were returned, and 383 were suitable for analysis. Most respondents were primary care physicians (86.4%) and practiced in private offices (68.1%). They averaged 19.2 ± 10.4 years of experience (4–55 years) and graduated from medical school between 1944 …

We report on a patient with typical clinicopathological features of eosinophilic fasciitis who responded well to oral hydroxyzine treatment.

A 10-year-old boy with cyanotic congenital heart disease was found to have a renal abscess with perinephritic extension. The main presenting features were inability to walk and stand which lead to confusion as septic arthritis of the hip. The diagnosis was made using ultrasonography and computerized axial tomography. All the cultures were sterile. Sterile urine cultures suggested a possible extrarenal source of infection. The abscess was drained percutaneously and the patient responded well to three-week course of antibiotics. The case is described to present the diversity of symptoms in renal abscess and its association with cyanotic