Close
Enter your
text here
Posts By :

Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

Room for Improvement: Heart Catheterization Risks in Young Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension
 Room for Improvement: Heart Catheterization Risks in Young Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:
Illustration of heart, CAVD

Identifying risk factors for cardiac catheterization complications offers physicians a way to improve pulmonary hypertension care. Up until a few years ago, cardiac catheterization in patients with pulmonary hypertension was considered a low-risk procedure for children and young adults. Some of the country’s best physicians had published studies showing very few complications among hundreds of…

read more
A Revolution in Deformity Correction Plus Limb Lengthening
 A Revolution in Deformity Correction Plus Limb Lengthening 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Orthopedic surgeons demonstrate that acute deformity correction and gradual limb lengthening can be accomplished simultaneously using an internal lengthening nail. In the past, limb lengthening and femoral deformity correction meant a long, painful, very visible process — an external fixator with manual adjusters, a knee that was difficult to bend, high infection risk and more.…

read more
Starting the Conversation on Sickle Cell Disease and Reproductive Health
 Starting the Conversation on Sickle Cell Disease and Reproductive Health 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Adolescents and young adults with sickle cell disease — and their caregivers — care about future fertility. But what should doctors tell them? Until just a few decades ago, sickle cell disease (SCD) was often fatal in childhood. Now that more patients reach adulthood, clinicians and researchers need to ask — and answer — questions…

read more
Mapping the World of Pediatric Severe Sepsis
 Mapping the World of Pediatric Severe Sepsis 1024 576 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:
Blood cells

Researchers work to reveal the many subtypes of pediatric sepsis — and what to do about them. Once upon a time, sepsis was just sepsis. Children experiencing septic shock and its aftermath — any resulting organ failure — were viewed as a fairly homogenous group of patients. But now, thanks in a large part to…

read more
Is Whole Exome Sequencing the Future of Kidney Stone Management?
 Is Whole Exome Sequencing the Future of Kidney Stone Management? 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

The first use of whole exome sequencing for monogenic causes of kidney stone disease reveals the diagnostic tool is ripe for clinical application. In the first-ever study of whole exome sequencing for early-onset kidney stone disease, an international team of researchers led by clinician-scientists at Boston Children’s Hospital expanded on their prior finding that many…

read more
Reevaluate the Evaluation of Febrile Infants?
 Reevaluate the Evaluation of Febrile Infants? 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:
Black and white photo of infant crying in hospital

For decades, complete blood cell counts have been the go-to way to identify babies at high risk for serious bacterial infections. But recent research shows the popular lab test isn’t as useful as everyone thought. The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) has worked for the past decade to both evaluate new technologies and…

read more
Solving the Puzzle of Transfusion-Related Immune Reactions
 Solving the Puzzle of Transfusion-Related Immune Reactions 576 367 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Now that physicians have the “how” of blood transfusions mastered, they are starting to explore the “what” — and they’re learning that the effects of sharing human blood may be even more far-reaching and complex than previously imagined. With the initial safety challenges addressed and the technical barriers of donor blood storage and cleaning improved,…

read more
Childhood Kidney Stones Associated With Atherosclerosis
 Childhood Kidney Stones Associated With Atherosclerosis 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Research could lead to early interventions to improve cardiovascular health. Kidney stones in children are increasingly common, and until recently were believed to be an isolated medical problem. But a study conducted by clinician-scientists at Nationwide Children’s Hospital has identified for the first time a significant association between kidney stones and atherosclerosis in children. Previous…

read more
Talking to Adolescent Patients About Marijuana
 Talking to Adolescent Patients About Marijuana 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

With legalization spreading across the United States, it’s hard to know what to say to teens curious about marijuana. Legal in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Renowned in pop culture. Affectionately called everything from “wacky tobaccy” to “hippie lettuce.” Marijuana isn’t going away. Despite its popularity and availability, many youths — and clinicians…

read more
Fighting Fibrosis
 Fighting Fibrosis 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:
Colorful illustration showing how fibrosis, or a spiky lumpy mass of scar tissue, forms over healthy liver tissue when the liver attempts to repair and replace damaged cells

Fibrosis is an unmet medical challenge with no satisfactory test and insufficient therapy. Now, one naturally occurring cellular component could simultaneously diagnose and heal patients. It’s much more than a million-dollar idea. The person who invents a simple blood or urine test that can accurately measure the severity of scarring in internal organs will have…

read more
Preserving Biopreservation
 Preserving Biopreservation 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Funding challenges, operational complexity and poor visibility threaten the field of human tissue biobanking. How sustainable are biorepositories? The Children’s Oncology Group (COG) boasts the collaboration of more than 9,000 pediatric cancer experts. They treat patients and research disease at more than 200 hospitals around the world. Nine out of every 10 U.S. children with cancer receive…

read more
InSight: A Window to the Heart
 InSight: A Window to the Heart 720 530 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Cardiac MRI for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a potentially fatal congenital heart defect affecting blood flow. It requires multiple palliative surgeries, starting within the first week of life. Nationwide Children’s employs a hybrid surgical approach. Hybrid Stage I (not shown) Bilateral branch pulmonary bands are placed to restrict blood flow.…

read more
A Shift in the Antibiotic Prophylaxis Debate?
 A Shift in the Antibiotic Prophylaxis Debate? 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

The RIVUR trial laid to rest certain questions surrounding antimicrobial prophylaxis in children with vesicoureteral reflux. But it also launched a new debate. The Randomized Intervention for Children with Vesicoureteral Reflux (RIVUR) trialwas supposed to provide clear direction for pediatric urologists. To date, it is the largest double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, multicenter study examining urinary tract infection…

read more
Conflicting Directions for BPD Treatment
 Conflicting Directions for BPD Treatment 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Treatment of bronchopulmonary dysplasia differs dramatically among institutions. But why does variation matter? Recent studies report extreme variation among hospitals ordering three common medications for chronic lung disease, or bronchopulmonary dysplasia, calling into question the appropriateness of their use and the reason for their prescription. “In the use of diuretics, inhaled bronchodilators and inhaled corticosteroids,…

read more
Placental Transfusion Confusion
 Placental Transfusion Confusion 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Medical professional organizations cannot reach consensus regarding delayed cord clamping and umbilical cord “milking.” Nearly every relevant professional organization has its own recommendations for placental transfusion techniques known as delayed umbilical cord clamping and milking. But it’s unclear whether additional research will lead to consensus. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and American Academy of Pediatrics say there’s…

read more
Beyond the Basics: Enrolling Children in Research
 Beyond the Basics: Enrolling Children in Research 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

The ethics of pediatric research include far more than the concepts of autonomy and assent. Consent and assent. Competence and autonomy. Physicians are familiar with the catchphrases of ethical research, but the deeper researchers dig, the more they find that the field’s current understanding of the dimensions involved in pediatric investigations is still shallow. Numerous…

read more
Study Finds Cow’s Milk is Added to Breast Milk and Sold to Parents Online
 Study Finds Cow’s Milk is Added to Breast Milk and Sold to Parents Online 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Deceptive Internet advertisements for human breast milk may put infants at risk. What do parents (and doctors) need to know about milk sharing? A study published yesterday on the safety of human breast milk bought over the Internet found that 10 percent of samples contained added cow’s milk. The discovery that purchased samples of human milk may…

read more
The High Cost of Antibiotic Redundancy
 The High Cost of Antibiotic Redundancy 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

As many as 78 percent of non-federal U.S. hospitals frequently prescribe redundant antibiotics, according to a study appearing in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. Over a four-year period, these hospitals accounted for 32,507 cases of antibiotic regimens with overlapping antimicrobial spectra, resulting in more than $12 million in avoidable health care expenses. There are very few clinical…

read more
Colorectal Cancer Screening and the Pediatric Subspecialist
 Colorectal Cancer Screening and the Pediatric Subspecialist 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Screening a 15-year-old for pre-cancerous polyps may seem a bit unusual, as colon cancer is widely considered an adult disease. But for children with a family history of Lynch syndrome, a hereditary condition that increases the risk of colon and other cancers, life-threatening malignancies can develop as early as the mid-teens. Fewer than one in…

read more
Mystery Rising: Why is T1D Incidence Rising Globally?
 Mystery Rising: Why is T1D Incidence Rising Globally? 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Type 1 diabetes used to be rare. Late 19th-century estimates put its incidence at about 0.004 percent of the world’s population. But by the end of the 20th century, most nations reported a number 350 times that rate. With many countries continuing to experience a steady rise in new cases of up to 4 percent…

read more
Building the Modern-Day Vaccine
 Building the Modern-Day Vaccine 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Vaccine development used to be straightforward. Now, the challenges are many and the successes are few. What will it take to overcome the obstacles presented by both immunology and society? For 160 years, vaccine after vaccine succeeded at safely and effectively preventing its targeted illness using a set of standard strategies. Scientists knew they simply…

read more
InSight: Working Up the Nerve
 InSight: Working Up the Nerve 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Using regional anesthesia to numb nerves reduces pain and speeds recovery in pediatric orthopedic surgery. Ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia has been used in adult patients for more than a decade but is now being used more regularly in pediatric patients, especially for orthopedic procedures. Femoral nerve block, in which the femoral nerve is numbed, is among…

read more
Body, Heal Thyself: Harnessing Our Innate Immunity
 Body, Heal Thyself: Harnessing Our Innate Immunity 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

What the urinary tract’s front-line defenses can teach us about our innate ability to self-heal …. and thwart antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is on the rise, health care-acquired infections are becoming harder to treat and even simple infectious illnesses account for billions of dollars per year in spending in the United States alone. As with…

read more
Enteral Therapy on Trial
 Enteral Therapy on Trial 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Micah Cohen sat down at the dining room table in his family’s Columbus, Ohio, home and took the first sip of a new therapy he hoped would relieve the symptoms of his Crohn’s disease. The thick, sweet chocolate shake, rich with nutrients, felt heavy in the 14-year-old’s stomach. Can I really drink six of these a…

read more
Delays and Difficulties: Fecal Microbiota Transplants as Therapy
 Delays and Difficulties: Fecal Microbiota Transplants as Therapy 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Use of fecal microbiota transplantation to treat a wide range of disorders is in limbo while the FDA decides how to regulate the therapy. Between 1997 and 2007, Clostridium difficile bacterial infections among U.S. children more than doubled and its mortality rate among all U.S. cases more than quadrupled. Clinicians are turning to a number of treatment…

read more
Thinking Outside the (Tool) Box: How Techniques From Alzheimer’s Research Illuminate the Pathophysiology of Preeclampsia
 Thinking Outside the (Tool) Box: How Techniques From Alzheimer’s Research Illuminate the Pathophysiology of Preeclampsia 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Irina Buhimschi, MD, has a habit of getting lost. In July 2007, that poor sense of direction proved to be a fortunate flaw. Having wandered into the wrong presentation at the Protein Society’s national conference, she hovered in the back to get her bearings. Up front, a speaker discussed how misfolded proteins accumulate in the…

read more
Mock MRI Scanners to Reduce Anesthesia Use
 Mock MRI Scanners to Reduce Anesthesia Use 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Initial research supports the use of MRI practice sessions and mock scanners to avoid sedation and alleviate patient and parent anxiety before an MRI. Studies exist for populations such as patients with ADHD and diabetes, but to date no studies appear to investigate the use of a mock MRI machine for young children with a wide range of…

read more
Using Zinc for Growth Delays in Babies Born Preterm
 Using Zinc for Growth Delays in Babies Born Preterm 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Zinc supplementation in extremely low birth-weight (ELBW) infants with chronic lung disease improves weight gain and linear growth, according to a retrospective study performed at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The study is one of the first to look at the association between zinc supplementation and growth in ELBW babies with chronic lung disease, also known as bronchopulmonary dysplasia.…

read more
The Dilemma of Undertriaged Trauma Cases
 The Dilemma of Undertriaged Trauma Cases 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Nationally, at least one in three children ages 5 and under with major trauma receive their definitive care at a level III trauma center or non-trauma center, according to arecent study in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Among children ages 6 to 17, the frequency of undertriage decreases to one in every four major trauma…

read more
AAP Statement on School Start Times May Be Challenging to Implement
 AAP Statement on School Start Times May Be Challenging to Implement 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

The American Academy of Pediatrics published a statement in August supporting delayed start times for middle and high schools to help combat chronic sleep deprivation. Research indicates adolescents naturally experience a shift in their circadian rhythm that makes sleep difficult prior to 11 PM. But since many middle and high schools begin classes before 8:30 AM, teens…

read more
Mentoring Junior Faculty: Fostering Tomorrow’s Leaders
 Mentoring Junior Faculty: Fostering Tomorrow’s Leaders 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Clinicians from institutions nationwide offer insight on how to piece together effective mentorship strategies in pediatrics. Mentoring may be a familiar concept to most pediatric professionals, but whether it occurs effectively in practice is less obvious. Research on the topic suggests a widespread lack of formal mentoring programs at academic medical institutions. Other studies point…

read more
Evolution of an Atlas
 Evolution of an Atlas 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Adult brain atlases have existed for years. Why is it so crucial — and so difficult — to build one for preemies? Even experts need maps. They give perspective, scale and orientation. They can show both current location and the final destination. And in the world of premature brains, they can offer vital information about…

read more
A Brave New World of Data
 A Brave New World of Data 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

According to William C. Ray, PhD, of the Battelle Center for Mathematical Medicine in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, novel techniques prototyped for understanding protein data could soon enable the visualization of large sets of demographic data, displaying contingency tables and group relationships through visual representations of positive and negative correlation, covariance and…

read more
Printed Motion: Holding Molecular Movement
 Printed Motion: Holding Molecular Movement 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

When student researcher Shareef Dabdoub discovered the appealing aesthetics of a transcriptional regulator from the Streptococcus family, he knew that cellular biology had handed him a work of art. And by using a computer program to predict the 3-D configuration of the molecule and its most probable pathway for rearranging from one state to another, he observed…

read more
Diagnosis Focus
 Diagnosis Focus 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Up to one in 10 blood clots in women occur in teen contraceptive users. When a teenage girl presents with chest pain, most doctors likely think first of anxiety, muscle injury or heartburn. In most cases, this is entirely appropriate. But if the girl is taking birth control pills, the problem could be a pulmonary…

read more
(Some Other) Mother’s Milk
 (Some Other) Mother’s Milk 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Women who can’t breastfeed often turn to the Internet for breast milk. But is it safe?

read more