News

The use of adjuvant corticosteroid therapy in children with bacterial meningitis wasn't associated with survival or length of hospital stay, according to research published in the May 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Popular obstetrics and gynecology textbooks lack the most current information on breast-feeding, and often omit key content such as normal breast-feeding patterns and strategies to improve breast-feeding rates, according to research findings presented at the 56th Annual Clinical Meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists held this week in New Orleans.

Compared to the licensed quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine Menactra, the novel MenACWY-CRM vaccine has similar tolerability and reactogenicity, but its immunogenicity is higher at one month post-vaccination, according to research presented this week at the Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research Joint Meeting in Honolulu.

Rising medical malpractice premiums may be related to increasing rates of Caesarean delivery and declining rates of operative vaginal delivery at a Connecticut hospital between 1991 and 2005, according to research findings presented at the 56th Annual Clinical Meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists held this week in New Orleans.

Adolescents who were adopted as infants have twice the risk of behavioral disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, than their non-adopted peers, according to an article published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine in May.

In premature infants, high-dose dietary docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation during the neonatal period improves Bayley Mental Index scores at age 18 months in girls and in those with a very low birth weight, according to research presented this week at the Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research Joint Meeting in Honolulu.

A study showed that children who only receive one of the two recommended shots of a live attenuated flu vaccine still receive significant protection.

Shaken baby syndrome, or SBS, may be on the way out – in name only. The American Academy of Pediatrics is about to recommend a new, more descriptive name, abusive head trauma, or AHT, said Vincent Palusci, MD, of the New York University School of Medicine.

Antihypertensives, as well as of course all other drugs, should be used cautiously in pediatric populations and in pregnant women. But ACE inhibitors are a special concern in pregnant women, explained William Cooper, MD, MPH, of Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital of Nashville, Tenn.

Mothers may be less likely to have daughters under the age of 13 vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV) than they would older daughters, despite current recommendations, according to research presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies' meeting held in Honolulu this week.

Infants with permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus, a rare disorder presenting within six months of birth, have a genetic defect leading to misfolded proinsulins and cell death, according to a report in the May issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Parents of autistic children are more likely to be hospitalized due to mental illness than their counterparts whose children are not autistic, according to study findings published in the May issue of Pediatrics.

A ketogenic diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates reduces seizures in epileptic children with daily seizures who have failed other treatments, according to research published online May 3 in The Lancet Neurology.

The debate over growth and puberty attenuation in children with profound developmental disabilities continues. From the medical perspective, growth reduction by dramatically increasing circulating estrogen levels is not innovative, said Michael Kappy, MD, PhD, of The Children’s Hospital, Denver.

Sucrose and pharmacotherapy have long been the backbone of pain management in the neonatal intensive care unit. Two posters presented Sunday afternoon at PAS suggest that other methods may be equally effective in some settings.

Prenatal exposure to a range of maternal infections, including vaginal yeast infections, cystitis, pyelonephritis, diarrhea and cough, is associated with an increased risk for epilepsy, according to the results of a study published in the May issue of Pediatrics.

Habitual snoring among children is associated with a higher risk of nocturnal enuresis, while mild increases in sleep pressure caused by elevated plasma levels of brain natriuretic peptide also play a role, researchers report in the May issue of Pediatrics.

The number of US measles cases in 2008 is the highest since 2001, and most of these cases originated outside of the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The firestorm of activity surrounding pediatric use of over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold continues with a new study calling for, among other things, increased focus on “packaging engineering.” At this year’s Pediatric Academic Societies’ meeting, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, researchers Daniel S. Budnitz, Melissa K. Schaefer, Nadine Shehab, and Adam L. Cohen, echoed the findings of previous reports citing unsupervised ingestions of cough and cold meds as a main source of emergency department (ED) visits in the pediatric population.

“I got it covered,” or “Yeah, I know,” are only two of the responses pediatricians and parents may encounter when probing asthmatic teens about their ability to control their condition. But a study presented at this year’s PAS conference, puts that level of control into question. Led by Maria Britto, MD, of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC), Ohio, the CCHMC researchers reported that 74% of adolescents dramatically overestimated their ability to control asthma, especially compared to the teens’ own reports of symptoms, use of rescue medications, and activity limitations. The study included 201 adolescents with an average age of 16.2 years who were observed during clinical visits.

Recently, the number of patients with food allergies is reported to be on the increase. In addition to the well established food allergens of egg, cows milk, wheat, and nuts seafoods, vegetables and fruits have joined the list of the most common allergens. Clinical symptoms of food allergy take various forms, and can include atopic dermatitis, asthma, anaphylaxis and sometimes death.

This workshop introduced the principles of child health equity as a new approach to practice, child advocacy, health policy generation, research and professional education. The interactive workshop was led by Dr Jeffrey Goldhagen, University of Florida College of Medicine, Jacksonville, Fl and Thomas F. Tonniges, Boy’s Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE.

End of life decisions are never easy. But deciding to withhold or withdraw treatment from children adds more layers of emotional and ethical complexity. “Treatment decisions are easier when an infant is clearly dying,” said Jonathan Hellman, MBBCh, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Canada, at the PAS meeting in Honolulu.

It’s been over four years since the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) influenza vaccine recommendations were expanded to include six-23-month-olds, and two years since the recommended expansion for 24-59-month-olds. So how diligent have pediatricians and family medicine (FM) docs been in applying these recommendations? A study by researchers at the University of Colorado, Denver School of Medicine, found that adherence among pediatricians has been almost universal, with family medicine docs trailing behind. Using responses to e-mail and mailed surveys, researchers found that 95% of peds surveyed routinely vaccinated six-23 month olds for the flu, with only 72% of FM docs routinely vaccinating patients in this age group. Surprisingly, in the 24-59 month old age group, adherence among peds was 80%, with only 42% of FM docs vaccinating this group.

Q. What is the Spanish translation of dropperfuls? This is one of the questions pharmacists around the country are encountering when generating Spanish versions of medication labels for pediatric patients. Although medical translation software exists, pharmacists are finding gaps in the softwares’capabilities; there are simply words and phrases that do not have a Spanish equivalent. This raises concern over exactly how pharmacies are overcoming this challenge and, ultimately, the accuracy of the translations being generated. Investigators Iman Sharif and Julia Tse from the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, examined this issue and presented their results at this year’s PAS conference in Hawaii.

This year’s presentation on the media and children played to an overflow audience. Victor C Strasburger, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, highlighted what pediatricians already know about the impact of media on children and adolescents, and discussed some things they may not know and what they need to find out. Although there are many studies discussing the effect of the media on children’s attitudes and behavior, they are not found in pediatric journals.

It was standing room only at a presentation on probiotics given at this year's PAS conference.

Peanut allergy is a growing problem, particularly in developed countries, and all patients with peanut allergy need immediate access to epinephrine and antihistamines as well as an emergency management plan, according to a seminar published in the May 3 issue of The Lancet.

The availability of physician jobs for medical graduates in the United Kingdom is the subject of a Head to Head feature in the May 3 issue of BMJ.

Although young women often see their obstetrician-gynecologists or primary care physicians for pelvic exams, Pap smears and urinalyses, chlamydia testing is often not performed at the same time, according to study findings published in the May issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.