News

A Brief Report by Mark M. Boucek, M.D., and colleagues from the Denver Children's Hospital Pediatric Heart Transplant Team published in the Aug. 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine is the basis for an extended discussion of the ethics of organ procurement in three accompanying Perspective articles, an editorial, and an online roundtable discussion.

Adults who become obese in their 30s are more likely to have been clumsy and have poor physical coordination as children, according to research published Aug. 12 in BMJ Online First.

The recent violence and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe have resulted in the breakdown of the country's health system, according to an editorial published online Aug. 12 in BMJ, which says the international medical community should condemn the atrocities, support human rights and help rebuild the country's health infrastructure.

The majority of mothers who breastfeed discontinue the practice before the baby is 6 months old, according to a national survey by Brigham Young University.

After a school-based psychosocial intervention, children exposed to armed conflict had improvements in post-traumatic stress symptoms, but showed no significant changes in several other outcomes, according to research published Aug. 13 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Rates of post-traumatic stress disorder are high among two previously under-recognized groups -- former combatants who experienced sexual violence and former child soldiers, according to two studies published in the Aug. 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Financial incentive schemes that pay general practices for their performance can help reduce inequalities in the delivery of health care between affluent and poor areas, according to a report published online Aug. 12 in The Lancet.

Teenagers may feel that abstinence does not exclude sexual activity, but simply a natural step that precedes it, according to the June Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health.

The homeoprotein Otx2 plays a role in postnatal maturation of parvalbumin cells and activates visual cortical plasticity in mice, according to research published in the Aug. 8 issue of Cell.

Stem cells can be produced from cells from patients with a variety of genetic disorders, allowing investigation into disease pathogenesis and drug development, according to research published online Aug. 7 in Cell.

Infants who are given antibiotics in the first three months of life may wheeze at 15 months, likely due to the presence of chest infections, as reported in the Clinical and Experimental Allergy.

Although newborns deserve medical treatments based on clinical research, recruiting infants to more than one study carries important scientific and ethical implications, according to a commentary in the Aug. 9 issue of The Lancet.

Children may face an increased risk of death in the two years following some febrile seizures, researchers report in the Aug. 9 issue of The Lancet.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed data from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) administered between 1991 and 2007 and found a 12% decrease in US high school students who have had sexual intercourse. The percentage of students that are currently sexually active is down 7%, the report showed.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has stated it does not support the routine use of electrocardiogram (ECG) screening before initiating treatment with stimulants for children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

In pediatric liver transplant patients who are infected with Epstein-Barr virus, treatment with valganciclovir may help clear the virus and decrease the risk of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, according to the results of a study published in the August issue of Liver Transplantation.

Among infants with positional preference, treatment with physical therapy may reduce the risk of developing severe deformational plagiocephaly, and in infants with deformational plagiocephaly, molding helmet therapy may be a more effective non-surgical intervention than repositioning therapy, according to two studies published in the August issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

In 2006, patients made an estimated 1.1 billion visits to physician offices and hospital emergency and outpatient departments in the United States, which was an average of four visits per person, according to health care statistics released Aug. 6 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Re-engineering the United States health care system for high performance will require fundamental change, according to reports released online Aug. 7 by The Commonwealth Fund.

Compared to children born in the United States, immigrant children are significantly more likely to be physically inactive and not participate in sports, according to an article published in the August issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The majority of menu options for kids at 13 top chain restaurants are too high in calories, saturated fat, and sodium, according to a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

To combat the worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemic, comprehensive prevention strategies are urgently needed, according to a series of six articles published online Aug. 6 in The Lancet and presented this week at AIDS 2008, the International AIDS Conference held in Mexico City.

Autistic 2-year-olds make significantly less eye contact with approaching adults than their developmentally delayed but not autistic and typically developing counterparts, according to an article published in the August issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

In short-term travelers, malaria prevention strategies vary according to the location of the trip and the travelers' medical history, according to a Clinical Practice article published in the Aug. 7 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Positive parenting behaviors may help reduce the risk of delinquency and aggression in early-maturing girls, according to a report published in the August issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved six influenza vaccines for the 2008-2009 season.

A video-game intervention targeting adolescents and young adults with cancer improved treatment adherence, self-efficacy and knowledge, but did not impact self-reported measures of adherence, stress, control or quality of life, according to an article in the August issue of Pediatrics.

Ambulatory, rather than clinic blood pressure, is a more accurate measure of changes in blood pressure throughout the day, and more data are needed on blood pressure changes in children and young people, according to an American Heart Association scientific statement published online Aug. 4 in Hypertension.

Consolidative immunotherapy appears to be a low-toxicity treatment associated with favorable survival in patients with the Ewing's sarcoma family of tumors and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, according to research published in the Aug. 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

A substantial number of children under 2 years of age presenting at the emergency department with an apparent life-threatening event have an abnormal toxicology screen positive for over-the-counter medications, according to an article in the August issue of Pediatrics.