Children

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 15 2020 Researchers have used insight from a comprehensive genomic analysis of neuroblastoma to learn about the process driving one of the most common childhood solid tumors. The findings revealed possible approaches for developing precision medicines to improve patient outcomes. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists led the study, which

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 14 2020 A new study summarizes over 30 years of clinical experience in the treatment and management of glutaric acidemia type 1 (GA1), a rare and potentially devastating metabolic disorder caused by variants in the GCDH gene. The study followed the clinical course of 168 individuals with GA1 who were

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 13 2020 Nine years ago, Nina Porter gave birth in a hospital bed with one of her ankles chained to the frame. Corrections officers stood watch as Porter held her daughter, Gianna, to her chest for the first time. Back at a nursery inside Indiana Women’s Prison, Gianna slept in

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 6 2020 Only about one in every 170 children take them. But “orphan drugs” accounted for 1 in every 15 private insurance dollars spent on children’s health care in the United States in 2018, according to a new study. That’s up 65% from just five years before. Even though insurance

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 9 2020 Floating in fluid deep in the brain are small, little understood fronds of tissue. Two new studies reveal that these miniature organs are a hotbed of immune system activity. This activity may protect the developing brain from infections and other insults — but may also contribute to neurodevelopmental

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 9 2020 Researchers with the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UHCMC) have secured $4 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Cancer Institute (NCI) to establish an HIV-associated Malignancy Research Center (HAMRC) focused on lung cancer in East Africa.

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 9 2020 In a nationwide study, UCLA researchers have found that health inequities can be measured in children as young as 5 years old. The research, published in Health Affairs, contributes to a growing body of literature finding that children of color who are also poor face greater health inequities

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 7 2020 Researchers from the University of Iowa may have discovered a safe new way to manage blood sugar non-invasively. Exposing diabetic mice to a combination of static electric and magnetic fields for a few hours per day normalizes two major hallmarks of type 2 diabetes, according to new findings

By Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 7 2020 Thought LeadersDr. Gina PoeProfessorUniversity of California, Los Angeles In this interview, Dr. Gina Poe from UCLA speaks to News-Medical about why we sleep, and the importance of REM sleep for brain development. Sleep is critical to our everyday health. What provoked your research into sleep? We carried out this

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 6 2020 The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused widespread harm to the health and well-being of already vulnerable children and adolescents in the U.S., particularly those in low-income households and children of color. Nevertheless, evidence-based programs known to reverse the negative effects of poverty are being widely neglected, according to

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 5 2020 Most parents know or suspect when their child smokes, but they are much more likely to be in the dark if the child vapes or uses other tobacco products, according to a large national study by researchers at UC San Francisco. The study, which tracked more than 23,000

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 30 2020 As many as 70% of very premature infants (born earlier than 32 weeks gestation) show signs of white matter abnormalities at birth. But only some of those infants go on to develop cognitive, language, motor, or behavioral disorders as they grow. Now, scientists say a new software tool

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 1 2020 As many as 800 million children have dangerously high lead values in their blood. The neurotoxin can cause permanent brain damage. The huge international numbers come from a new report from Pure Earth and UNICEF. Pure Earth works to solve pollution problems that can be harmful to humans.

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 1 2020 When newborn babies or children with heart or lung distress are struggling to survive, doctors often turn to a form of life support that uses artificial lungs. This treatment, called Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), has been credited with saving countless lives. But in some cases, it can also

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 1 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has shifted many of our interactions online, with Zoom video calls replacing in-person classes, work meetings, conferences and other events. Will all that screen time damage our vision? Maybe not. It turns out that our visual perception is highly adaptable, according to research from Psychology

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 30 2020 Researchers at University of California San Diego report that while Kawasaki disease (KD) occurs in clusters, the traits, and thus the triggers of the inflammatory disease vary among clusters. The findings are published in the September 2020 online issue of The Journal of Pediatrics. “The importance of this

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 29 2020 Girls – but not boys – who participate actively in school sports activities in middle childhood show improved behavior and attentiveness in early adolescence, suggests a new Canadian study published in Preventative Medicine. Girls who do regular extracurricular sports between ages 6 and 10 show fewer symptoms of

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 25 2020 In the United States, individual state laws barring 18- to 20-year-olds from buying or possessing a handgun make little difference in the rate of homicides involving a gun by people in that age group, a new University of Washington study has found. The central issue is that there’s

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 25 2020 A new drug offers hope for young boys with the progressive neuromuscular disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) by potentially offering an alternative to high-dose glucocorticoids that have significant side effects. Interim results from a 24-month clinical trial at Duke Health and other institutions suggest that the drug, vamorolone,

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 25 2020 A Dartmouth-led study, published in the journal Pediatrics, offers new details about pediatric mental health boarding in emergency departments across the country, a problem that has steadily increased in the last 10 years and been made worse by a shortage of psychiatric resources. Boarding refers to the practice

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 25 2020 Fragile gains made to advance women and children’s health are threatened by conflict, the climate crisis and COVID-19, according to a new report from Every Woman Every Child. Protect the Progress: Rise, Refocus, Recover, 2020 highlights that since the Every Woman Every Child movement was launched 10 years

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 24 2020 Pollution particles, including metals, have been found in the placentas of fifteen women in London, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London. The study, funded by Barts Charity and published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, demonstrate that inhaled particulate matter from air

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 23 2020 Infants born to women with COVID-19 showed few adverse outcomes, according to the first report in the country of infant outcomes through eight weeks of age. The study, led by researchers at UC San Francisco, suggests that babies born to mothers infected with the virus generally do well

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 22 2020 A new Canadian study reveals that the psychological and physical effects of childhood sexual abuse are closely tied. The finding could help healthcare professionals develop more effective interventions and ultimately improve mental and physical health outcomes for survivors of abuse in childhood. Authored by Pascale Vézina-Gagnon, a PhD

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the closure of many schools around the world, both primary and secondary, in March or April. This has been estimated by different researchers to have widely varying impacts on the incidence and mortality of COVID-19. For instance, one study shows that weekly incidence was reduced by 62%, and weekly deaths by

While earlier studies have shown the significance of serological testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in pregnant women, their partners have largely been excluded. Now, a new Danish study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in September 2020 reports the impact of serologic testing in both pregnant women and their partners, as

As the search for a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine continues, with some candidate vaccines nearing the completion Phase III clinical trials, a trio of experts weighs in with some sound reasoning as to whether any future vaccine should be considered mandatory for children. The viewpoint article is published in the journal

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 17 2020 Children who take oral steroids to treat asthma or autoimmune diseases have an increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and blood clots, according to Rutgers researchers. The study, which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, examined the records of more than 933,000 US children from