Children

An experimental form of gene therapy developed by a team of researchers from UCLA and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London has successfully treated 48 of 50 children born with a rare and deadly inherited disorder that leaves them without an immune system. Severe combined immunodeficiency due to adenosine deaminase deficiency, or ADA-SCID, is caused

A new Dartmouth-led study, published this week in the journal Pediatrics, has found that the disproportionate use of premiums within child-targeted TV advertising for children’s fast-food meals is deceptive. The researchers examined thousands of advertisements from 11 fast-food restaurants, but one company–McDonald’s–accounted for nearly all the airtime and, as a result, the findings. The researchers

Managing weight, blood pressure and cholesterol in children may help protect brain function in later life, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal Circulation. This is the first study to highlight that cardiovascular risk factors accumulated from childhood through mid-life may influence poor cognitive performance at midlife. Previous research

In a small study, researchers found college athletes who contracted COVID-19 rarely had cardiac complications. Most had mild COVID symptoms that did not require treatment, and in a small percentage of those with abnormal cardiac testing, there was no evidence of heart damage on special imaging tests. All athletes returned to sports without any health

Seroprevalence studies have proved their worth in estimating the size and directionality of an outbreak of infectious disease, especially the current pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-induced coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A new study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server describes the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in five representative regions of Germany.

Using a laser for a rare brain surgery to treat drop seizures, which cause a child with epilepsy to suddenly fall, holds some advantages over a traditional open craniotomy, including shorter hospital stays for patients, a study led by UT Southwestern researchers indicates. The findings, published in the Journal of Neurosurgery, provide the first quantitative

In a paper published today in Nature Communications, an international group of collaborators led by researchers at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh have identified a genetic cause of a rare neurological disorder marked by developmental delay and loss of coordination, or ataxia. The disorder, scientists found, is caused by mutations in a protein called GEMIN5–one

Depressive symptoms are more common in teenage girls than in their male peers. However, boys’ mental health appears to be affected more if they suffer from obesity. Irrespective of gender, bullying is a considerably greater risk factor than overweight for developing depressive symptoms. These conclusions are drawn by researchers at Uppsala University who monitored adolescents

Children ages two to five who have the most common form of cystic fibrosis (CF), caused by two copies of the F508 gene mutation, have not had any modulator treatments available to them until recently. A new study authored by researchers at Children’s Hospital Colorado and published May 6, 2021, in Lancet Respiratory Medicine shows

It’s 7:30 a.m. on a school day. Two parents are racing to get their three young children dressed, fed, packed for the day, into coats and out the door when 6-year-old Hallel runs downstairs, crying. Ari, Hallel’s father, is the first to ask “What’s wrong?” The answer launched a journey these parents never envisioned, described

A hot topic symposia session during the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2021 Virtual Meeting will address the persistent controversies and questions in preterm infant nutrition. After six years of interdisciplinary expert discussion and critical evidence review, the 2014 vision to develop evidence-informed guidance for the nutritional care of preterm infants has come to fruition. The

Neonatal hypothermia — which occurs when an infant’s core body temperature falls below the normal range needed to maintain health — contributes to approximately one million deaths each year, and countless cases of stunted growth, almost exclusively in low- and middle-income countries. To address this common but preventable condition, researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital, engineers

A new University of Iowa study challenges the idea that gray matter (the neurons that form the cerebral cortex) is more important than white matter (the myelin covered axons that physically connect neuronal regions) when it comes to cognitive health and function. The findings may help neurologists better predict the long-term effects of strokes and

Researchers have conducted an analysis of nationwide surveillance data from Israel demonstrating the real-world effectiveness of Pfizer-BioNTech’s BNT162b2 vaccine at protecting against infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The team – from the Israel Ministry of Health in Jerusalem, Pfizer in Collegeville, Philadelphia,

The 2021 Montana legislative session will be remembered as one of the state’s most consequential as a Republican-led legislature and governor’s office passed new laws restricting abortions, lowering taxes and regulating marijuana. But the debate over those and other highly publicized issues may have caused other meaningful legislation related to health care to slip off

A state-of-the-art in-utero procedure allows surgeons to correct a birth defect on developing babies inside the womb. But operating on a mother and her unborn child at the same time can be challenging and unpredictable. To give their world-class surgeons even more information ahead of surgery, Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies

A state of the art plenary session during the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2021 Virtual Meeting will bring together national experts on child poverty, racism and racial inequities, immigrant health, Native American culture, and environmental threats to discuss the intersectionality of child poverty. Poor children do not just suffer from double jeopardy, but frequently multiple

Besides being underweight, babies born to women whose diet lacked sufficient protein during pregnancy tend to have kidney problems resulting from alterations that occurred while their organs were forming during the embryonic stage of their development. In a study published in PLOS ONE, researchers affiliated with the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in the state of

There is currently no consensus on what quality end-of-life care for children with cancer looks like, or how to measure and deliver it; however, investigators recently assembled an expert panel to help fill this void. In a study published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the panel endorsed 16

After reviewing a database of gene mutations in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a team of Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) researchers decided to study a specific gene mutation that likely caused ASD in a girl. They demonstrated that the mutation was damaging to the gene, and that female, but not male, mice

A biomedical research company founded by a University of Alabama at Birmingham physician-scientist has received $3 million in seed funding. ResBiotic Inc. — spun off from UAB last year — will use the money to develop and commercialize groundbreaking probiotic formulations for lung health, says founder C. Vivek Lal, M.D., an associate professor in the

In the current pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), pregnant women have wrestled with the question of whether they and/or their babies are at higher risk due to the direct or indirect effects of infection by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A new study, recently released as a preprint on the medRxiv*

In a multi-institutional study, researchers in the Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Research Network (DBPNet), led by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), have conducted the first and largest analysis to date comparing the effectiveness and side effects of stimulants like methylphenidate (Ritalin) and alpha-adrenergic agonists like guanfacine (Tenex) in preschool-age children. The researchers found that both classes of

Stress levels of moms with preschoolers soared during the pandemic, with twice as many of the mothers reporting they lost sleep during the COVID-19 outbreak than before it. “Moms of young children are already less likely to get the recommended amount of sleep and physical activity than women who don’t have children. These shortfalls could

A hot topic symposia session during the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2021 Virtual Meeting will discuss a multipronged approach to addressing childhood adversity and promoting resilience – at the clinical, systems, community and educational levels. The effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on health outcomes across the lifespan is well recognized among pediatric practitioners. Increasing

More than 25% of the world’s population (greater than 1.5 billion people) face the burden of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections, a species of intestinal parasite whose eggs develop in the soil before finding a new host. The main cause of this high infection rate is lack of access to adequate sanitation facilities (toilets) and the

A new study published in the journal JAMA offers reassuring evidence that infants born to mothers with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), or even asymptomatic infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), have little increase in respiratory symptoms over babies born to uninfected mothers. Evidence of the virus has been found in placental and

Yale researchers have shown that developmental abnormalities, including those that lead to pregnancy loss and autism, are controlled by the genetics of the fetus and placenta — and not the mother’s intrauterine environment. The findings are reported in the April 28 online edition of the journal Placenta. One out of every 33 children is diagnosed