In a case believed to be a United States first, the radiology team at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital has used prenatal magnetic resonance imaging to detect an often-misdiagnosed genetic disease. Continue Reading
Children with serious intestinal problems have to be fed intravenously. There moreover, exist systems that enable intravenous feeding to be carried out at home. Mr I-aki Irastorza, paediatrician at the Cruces hospital in Bilbao, spent some 15 years analysing how serious intestinal problems in children were treated at the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London. With the gathered data he has presented a highly novel PhD thesis at the University of the Basque Country. Continue Reading
There is a link between repeated anaesthesia in children and memory impairment, though physical activity can help to form new cells that improve memory, reveals new research from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Continue Reading
Pediatrics researchers have identified the first major gene location responsible for a severe, often painful type of food allergy called eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). In this disease, which may cause weight loss, vomiting, heartburn and swallowing difficulties, a patient may be unable to eat a wide variety of foods. Continue Reading
Today the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the first in a series of web videos and public service announcements to promote First Lady Michelle Obama’s national initiative, Let’s Move, to solve childhood obesity within a generation. Childhood obesity and excess weight threatens the healthy future of one third of American children. Continue Reading
For children whose asthma is not well controlled and on low doses of inhaled corticosteroids, a long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) may be the most effective of three possible step-up treatments. National Jewish clinician-scientists Stanley Szefler, Joseph Spahn, Ronina Covar Gary Larsen and Lynn Taussig, and colleagues in the NIH-funded Childhood Asthma Research and Education Network published their findings March 2, 2010, online in the New England Journal of Medicine. Continue Reading
A systematic review that is published in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics by Schulte and associates (University of Bremen, Germany) analyzes what is the psychosomatic component of abdominal pain with no apparent cause in children. Continue Reading
As spring approaches and people return to outdoor activities, caution should be taken in areas of the country that are home to Loxosceles reclusa, also called the brown recluse spider. A new study from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital found that when patients present with sudden anemia, but the cause is elusive, the brown recluse spider should be part of the differential diagnosis, at least in parts of the nation where the spider is regularly found. Continue Reading
New research using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) shows that childhood stress such as abuse or emotional neglect, in particular when combined with genetic factors, can result in structural brain changes, rendering these people more vulnerable to developing depression. The study led by scientists at Trinity College Dublin has just been published in the international scientific journal, Neuropsychopharmacology. Continue Reading
Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the first patient has been treated in the Phase 1 study of PEG-SN38 for pediatric cancer patients. PEG-SN38 or EZN-2208 is Enzon’s PEGylated form of SN38, the active metabolite of the cancer drug Camptosar® (irinotecan HCl injection). The study is designed to find the recommended dose of PEG-SN38 in pediatric patients. The PEG-SN38 compound is currently being evaluated in Phase 2 studies for metastatic colorectal and breast cancer. Continue Reading
