Monthly Archives :

April 2022

Strategies and Resources for Managing Anxiety in Pediatric Patients
Strategies and Resources for Managing Anxiety in Pediatric Patients 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental health diagnoses affecting children, making regular assessment and robust care resources essential to both primary and specialty care practices. Data from 2016-2019 report indicates that nearly 1 in 10 children ages 3-17 have ever been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder — a number believed to have…

Is 3D Anorectal Manometry Preferable to Traditional Anorectal Manometry in Children With Functional Constipation?
Is 3D Anorectal Manometry Preferable to Traditional Anorectal Manometry in Children With Functional Constipation? 1024 680 Mary Bates, PhD
Close up color photo of little boy holding hands on his belly

Study finds 3D-ARM is less comfortable and does not provide additional information compared to traditional ARM.   In a recent pilot study, researchers from Nationwide Children’s compared outcomes and patient experience of a new three-dimensional (3D) anorectal manometry (ARM) technique compared to regular ARM in children with functional constipation. They found that the use of…

When Every Week Matters: Advancing a Treatment to the Clinic
When Every Week Matters: Advancing a Treatment to the Clinic 1024 491 Natalie Wilson
Illustrations of clock faces at different times and angles

Researchers and regulatory experts bring a potential new therapy for a deadly neurodegenerative disease from IND application to clinical trial enrollment in a matter of weeks, setting a new standard in translating therapies from bench to bedside. In October 2021, the Office of Research Regulatory Affairs (ORRA) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital submitted an Investigational New…

Optimizing the Body’s Natural Cancer Killers
Optimizing the Body’s Natural Cancer Killers 1024 649 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

Recent advances in the expansion and production of natural killer cells offers pediatric patients new hope for remission after high-risk cancer diagnoses. Natural killer (NK) cells are the innate immune system’s first line of defense for viral infections. Although these white blood cells don’t have the antigen-specific “memory” that characterizes T cells or the antibody-producing…

How Does Allergic Disease Protect Against Developing Asthma After Viral Infection?
How Does Allergic Disease Protect Against Developing Asthma After Viral Infection? 1024 523 Mary Bates, PhD

Neutrophils and IL-4 are critical in preventing post-viral airway disease in mice with pre-existing allergic disease. In a new study, researchers from Nationwide Children’s Hospital show that in a mouse mode simulating human respiratory viral infection, pre-existing allergic disease prevents the development of asthma following viral infection. Further experiments revealed that this protection against post-viral…

Making (Lots of) NK Cells
Making (Lots of) NK Cells 1024 649 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

When Dean Lee, MD, PhD, joined Nationwide Children’s and The Ohio  State University Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2016, the institutions gave him leadership of a joint program: the Cellular Therapy and Cancer Immunology Program (CTCI), which serves to develop research efforts into clinical care for both pediatric and adult patients. The CTCI team has worked…

Moving Emergency Medicine Research Forward
Moving Emergency Medicine Research Forward 1024 614 Abbie Miller

Utilizing exception from informed consent studies and a national network of emergency medicine experts, clinician-scientists are advancing research to uncover best practices and improve care. Exception from informed consent (EFIC) is a special rule set utilized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to support research in emergency situations. The word exception is particularly…

Improving Racial Diversity and Equity in Clinical Trials
Improving Racial Diversity and Equity in Clinical Trials 1024 511 Jeb Phillips

There is now broad consensus across medicine that clinical trials must be more representative of minority populations. How can that be achieved? Last year, a group of Nationwide Children’s Hospital neonatologists published an unusually pointed critique of racial and ethnic representation in neonatal clinical trials in the Journal of Perinatology. They wrote that the lack…

Engineered Viruses Help the Immune System Target Cancer Cells
Engineered Viruses Help the Immune System Target Cancer Cells 1024 623 Lauren Dembeck

The seemingly unlikely “partnership” leads to strong antitumor responses in pediatric tumor models. A recent study from researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, published in the Journal for Immuno Therapy of Cancer, describes how a type of viroimmunotherapy activates the immune system to preferentially target tumor cells. “Pediatric tumor typically lack neoantigens – new proteins that…

SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the Blood is Associated With Worse Outcomes in Kids
SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the Blood is Associated With Worse Outcomes in Kids 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

Researchers have identified a risk factor for more severe illness in children with COVID-19: detectable levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA circulating in the blood. Children with detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the blood, called RNAemia, were more likely to require oxygen and be admitted to the intensive care unit than children with COVID-19 who did not have…

Featured Researcher — Diana Thomas, MD, PhD
Featured Researcher — Diana Thomas, MD, PhD 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

Diana Thomas, MD, PhD, joined the Biopathology Center (BPC) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital as its pathology operations director in 2021. Since then, she has been busy supporting research protocol development and the receipt, processing, banking and distribution of biospecimens for clinical and research investigators around the world. As a biorepository for some of the largest…

Multi-Disciplinary Team Develops Evidence-Based Guidelines for Acute Management of Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension in Newborns
Multi-Disciplinary Team Develops Evidence-Based Guidelines for Acute Management of Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension in Newborns 200 133 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

What began as an internal effort to simplify practice has transformed into published evidence-based guidelines to standardize care for acute stabilization and management of newborns with pulmonary hypertension.   Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN) is a highly varied and changeable condition that presents a challenge for clinical management, even among tertiary care centers…

Perceptions About Type 2 Diabetes Differ Among Adolescent Patients, Parents and Physicians
Perceptions About Type 2 Diabetes Differ Among Adolescent Patients, Parents and Physicians 1024 683 JoAnna Pendergrass, DVM

Differing perceptions about type 2 diabetes among teens, parents and physicians can create barriers to diagnosing and managing the disease.   Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is becoming increasingly prevalent in adolescents, with a median age of diagnosis of 13.5 years in the pediatric population. Managing pediatric T2D is challenging, given that traditional medical and non-medical…

Which Surgical Approach for Catheterizable Channels in Bowel and Bladder Management Is Best?
Which Surgical Approach for Catheterizable Channels in Bowel and Bladder Management Is Best? 150 150 Jessica Nye, PhD

Specific patient characteristics, such as appendix size, may help guide clinicians when deciding which surgical approach to use for patients in need of catheterizable channels for bladder and bowel management. Many patients with neurologic disorders experience urinary and fecal incontinence. The appendix or the transverse ileal tube can be repurposed as a catheterizable channel to…

Improving Identification of Neonatal Acute Kidney Injury in the NICU
Improving Identification of Neonatal Acute Kidney Injury in the NICU 1024 575 Mary Bates, PhD

Approaches at three different institutions all resulted in improved identification and care of acute kidney injury in newborns. In a new study, researchers describe three different approaches to standardizing the identification and care of acute kidney injury (AKI) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), including the approach taken at Nationwide Children’s. They report that…

COVID-19 and Neurologic Manifestations in Children
COVID-19 and Neurologic Manifestations in Children 1024 512 Marlina Lovett, MD
coronavirus

Just weeks after SARS-CoV-2 was identified, global consortiums were formed to combat the pandemic. Health care providers and scientists worked together to learn how SARS-CoV-2 impacted the body, to share information, to generate hypotheses and to develop treatment approaches. The Global Consortium Study of Neurologic Dysfunction in COVID-19 (GCS-NeuroCOVID) was designed to provide insight into…