Children's health
07 Apr 2008
Why some genetic association studies have failed replication attempts
Paper resulted from identification of childhood obesity gene and carries implications for fundamental study design and analysis. A team of researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), and elsewhere have described a possible reason why some studies have been unable to replicate associations between…
Cancer
06 Apr 2008
New hope for children with kidney tumours deemed inoperable
Physicians at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have demonstrated that children with bilateral Wilms tumour, a cancer of the kidneys, can retain normal function in both kidneys by undergoing a procedure called bilateral nephron-sparing surgery, even when preoperative scans suggest that the tumours are inoperable. Between 1999 and 2006, all…
Children's health
06 Apr 2008
Somalia is again polio-free
Somalia is again polio-free, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) announced, calling it a ‘historic achievement’ in public health. Somalia has not reported a case since 25 March 2007, a major landmark in the intensified eradication effort launched last year to wipe out the disease in the remaining few strongholds.
Children's health
06 Apr 2008
Mysterious fevers of unknown origin: could surgery be a cure?
A child spikes a high fever, sometimes as high as 40 degrees, and sometimes causing seizures. She’s rushed to the emergency room, the hospital runs test after test, specialists are brought in, but no explanation is found. Many families – though no one knows how many – go through this cyclical…
Bone
06 Apr 2008
1st US study — gymnastics lands thousands in ER
More than 600,000 children participate in school-sponsored and club-level gymnastics competitions annually in the United States. Yet gymnastics continues to be overlooked in terms of potential for injury, while having one of the highest injury rates of all girls’ sports. A study, conducted by researchers in the Center for Injury…
Blood
06 Apr 2008
Foetal cells in the blood of mothers years after donor egg pregnancies
Suppression of the immune system’s surveillance response could prevent transplant rejection and foetal cells may be an easier source of stem cells than banking. For the first time, researchers have observed tfhat foetal cells remain in the blood of mothers who had pregnancies with donor eggs for years after delivery,…
Children's health
06 Apr 2008
Smoking during pregnancy linked to low baby birthweight
Babies whose teenage mothers smoked during pregnancy are more likely to suffer from low birthweight (LBW) than babies whose mothers did not smoke, according to a study in the latest Medical Journal of Australia. Associate Professor Elizabeth Sullivan and Denise Chan from the University of New South Wales studied the…
Children's health
02 Apr 2008
Lung transplants not dangerous for children with cystic fibrosis, after all
Responding to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which concluded that lung transplants were harmful for children with cystic fibrosis, articles published in the latest issue of Pediatric Transplantation refute the conclusions and argue that the highly influential research was severely flawed. According to two rebuttals…
Children's health
28 Mar 2008
Actual use of asthma medications contradicts guidelines
A study has found only 16% of the 352,082 Australians who filled a prescription for asthma preventer medications for the first time during the period July 2004 to June 2005, went on to use them regularly. Most (61%) ‘first time’ users did not fill another prescription in the next two…
