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In Brief

Secondary Findings: What Should Be Reported?
 Secondary Findings: What Should Be Reported? 150 150 Brianne Moore
By: Brianne Moore

With the growing use of exome and genome sequencing in research and diagnosis, the ACMG has recently released a policy update on the reporting of secondary findings. Genomic sequencing is instrumental in identifying many diseases. It can also reveal disease causing variants in our genetic code unrelated to the reason the clinical exome or genome…

In Extremely Preterm Babies, SNAP-II Score Predicts Brain Impairments at Age 10
 In Extremely Preterm Babies, SNAP-II Score Predicts Brain Impairments at Age 10 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

Measures taken in first 12 hours of life are associated with a host of deficits. Children born extremely preterm are known to be at increased risk of neurodevelopmental impairments, but not all babies born the same early date and weight are equal. Researchers have found that for children born at less than 28 weeks, a…

The Maternal Microbiome: How Stress During Pregnancy Impacts Female Offspring in Adulthood
 The Maternal Microbiome: How Stress During Pregnancy Impacts Female Offspring in Adulthood 150 150 Tiasha Letostak, PhD
By: Tiasha Letostak, PhD

A recent study suggests a critical window of pregnancy where stress is able to influence the microbiome and intrauterine environment, with lasting behavioral consequences. Previous research has demonstrated that stress during pregnancy changes the composition of the intestinal microbiota and is related to the emergence of behavioral disorders such as anxiety and depression. A new…

Balancing Immune Activation and Suppression After Cardiopulmonary Bypass
 Balancing Immune Activation and Suppression After Cardiopulmonary Bypass 150 150 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

Understanding how the immune system responds to CPB could dramatically impact postsurgical outcomes. Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is a relatively routine procedure, generally with favorable outcomes. However, among the risks posed to patients is the over- or under-activation of the immune system following the surgery. Mark Hall, MD, FCCM, division chief of Critical Care at Nationwide Children’s Hospital,…

Bracing for Buckle Fractures
 Bracing for Buckle Fractures 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

Shifting from casts to splints for distal radius buckle fractures has saved time and money for providers and families. The traditional treatment for distal radius buckle fractures involves immobilization in a short- or longarm cast. A 2015 multi-institutional study found that more than 70 percent of pediatric orthopedic specialists use this as their standard of…

Survey: Physical Barriers, Not Fear, Keep Homeless Youth From Receiving Care
 Survey: Physical Barriers, Not Fear, Keep Homeless Youth From Receiving Care 150 150 Brianne Moore
By: Brianne Moore

Research survey investigates barriers to care in unstably-housed youth. Every year, an estimated 1.6 to 1.7 million youth in the United States are living on the streets, in shelters or in other temporary living situations. Earlier studies have suggested that homeless youth do not seek medical services because of fear-based barriers – distrust of doctors,…

Best Practices in Severe BPD Treatment
 Best Practices in Severe BPD Treatment 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

To help standardize care, the Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia Collaborative has published a comprehensive review of evidence-based approaches for treatment of patients with severe forms of the disease. Infants with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) have high risks of late morbidities and mortality, but the best ways to manage these vulnerable patients are still debated. In fact, it’s…

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Can Help Children With Persistent Post-Concussive Symptoms
 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Can Help Children With Persistent Post-Concussive Symptoms 150 150 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

A psychological intervention improves kids’ function and quality of life even years after a concussion. For most children and adolescents that experience concussions, symptoms resolve after a week or two. However, a small subset of kids has persistent symptoms lasting for months or even years after the injury. These symptoms can be disruptive and stressful,…

How a QI Intervention Lowered Breast Milk Errors in a Busy NICU
 How a QI Intervention Lowered Breast Milk Errors in a Busy NICU 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

Bedside barcode scanners and dedicated milk preparation technicians helped drive the decline. A quality improvement (QI) initiative in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital has been associated with a substantial reduction in errors administering mother’s milk to these vulnerable infants. The total number of scanned errors declined from 97.1 per 1,000…

U.S. Poison Control Centers Receive 32 Calls a Day About Pediatric Exposures to Prescription Opioids
 U.S. Poison Control Centers Receive 32 Calls a Day About Pediatric Exposures to Prescription Opioids 150 150 Tracy Mehan, MA
By: Tracy Mehan, MA

Researchers call for changes to prescribing practices and increased education about safe storage at home. A new study published online today by Pediatrics and conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy and the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that there were more than 188,000 calls to U.S. Poison Control Centers for…

Teens With Asthma: A High School Diploma Does Not Equal Readiness for Self-Management
 Teens With Asthma: A High School Diploma Does Not Equal Readiness for Self-Management 150 150 David Stukus, MD
By: David Stukus, MD

Poorly controlled asthma takes a toll on numerous aspects of health and life. Asthma is the leading pediatric chronic health condition, affecting approximately 10 percent of children and adolescents. Uncontrolled asthma can lead to acute exacerbations and need for emergency department visits or hospitalizations. A frequently unrecognized toll of poorly controlled asthma is the impact…

Mechanism of Bacterial Adhesion to Platelets Revealed
 Mechanism of Bacterial Adhesion to Platelets Revealed 150 150 Tiasha Letostak, PhD
By: Tiasha Letostak, PhD

Researchers investigate a key protein required to bind two distinct receptors on the bacteria Streptococcus oralis involved in infective endocarditis. Infective endocarditis (IE) is an infection of the endocardium, usually of the valves, and is caused by infectious agents that are typically bacterial. Understanding how these bacterial infections occur is important to the prevention, treatment…

ANH Preserves Platelet Count and Function Regardless of Storage Method and Time
 ANH Preserves Platelet Count and Function Regardless of Storage Method and Time 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

Length of storage during cardiac surgeries appears to have no detrimental effects on blood. Across the United States, transfusions are standard in cardiac operating rooms, but at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, a practice geared toward limiting blood transfusion has been established and finely honed. According to a recent study from The Heart Center at Nationwide Children’s, more than…

How a QI Project Dramatically Increased Pediatric Survival After Cardiopulmonary Arrest
 How a QI Project Dramatically Increased Pediatric Survival After Cardiopulmonary Arrest 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

A survival rate of 37-48 percent among young heart surgery patients who experience code events is the norm. A multidisciplinary review process helped achieve an 81 percent rate at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Survival rates have remained stubbornly low for young heart surgery patients who experience cardiopulmonary arrest; critical care literature reports that fewer than 50…

There’s No Place Like Home (Depending on Which State You Live In…..)
 There’s No Place Like Home (Depending on Which State You Live In…..) 150 150 Kelly Kelleher, MD, MPH
By: Kelly Kelleher, MD, MPH

Researchers find wide variation in how federal entitlement and benefit programs are implemented from state to state. Over the past five decades, the health of America’s children has improved considerably. Unfortunately, those improvements were not evenly distributed. Most American children are healthy and have promising futures. Children in poverty, on the other hand, infrequently move…

Two Investigational Antitumor Agents Work Better Together Against MPNST and Neuroblastoma
 Two Investigational Antitumor Agents Work Better Together Against MPNST and Neuroblastoma 150 150 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

The synergistic effects of a kinase inhibitor and an oncolytic herpes virus show promise for difficult-to-treat neuroblastomas and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors. Two investigational agents, Aurora A kinase inhibitor (alisertib) and HSV1716, a virus derived from HSV-1 and attenuated by the deletion of RL1, have shown some antitumor efficacy in early clinical trials as…

Evaluating and Treating Pediatric Lower Back Pain in the Primary Care Setting
 Evaluating and Treating Pediatric Lower Back Pain in the Primary Care Setting 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

While pediatric training often focuses on etiology, recent studies have found that most cases of lower back pain in school-aged children have no definitive diagnosis and are benign and self-limiting. Primary care pediatricians are often taught that lower back pain in school-aged children has a definitive cause. As a recent review published in JAMA Pediatrics highlights, studies conducted over…

Hormonal Contraception Safer Than Expected For Women With Diabetes
 Hormonal Contraception Safer Than Expected For Women With Diabetes 150 150 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Women with diabetes often fall through the cracks when it comes to prescription contraception. A new study illuminates the issues and highlights safe options. The use of contraception to prevent unplanned pregnancies is an important aspect of women’s health. For women with chronic health conditions, family planning has important implications for the health of the…

Subclinical Muscle Involvement May be Missed With Amyopathic Juvenile Dermatomyositis Diagnosis
 Subclinical Muscle Involvement May be Missed With Amyopathic Juvenile Dermatomyositis Diagnosis 150 150 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Study shows that some children diagnosed with amyopathic dermatomyositis have subclinical muscle involvement, highlighting the need for standardized workup and treatment protocols. Juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) is an autoimmune disease that classically presents in preschool to school aged children with a rash and muscle weakness. In some cases, children may present with the rash, but no muscle…

For AYA Females With Rhabdomyosarcoma, Consider Routine Examination or Imaging of Breasts
 For AYA Females With Rhabdomyosarcoma, Consider Routine Examination or Imaging of Breasts 150 150 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Rhabdomyosarcoma with breast involvement is found almost exclusively in females. A recent case series highlights the need for guidelines for follow-up imaging. Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a soft tissue sarcoma associated with metastasis and inferior outcomes in adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients (those with cancer diagnosis at age 15-39 years). Metastases to the breast have…

Hospitals Should Use Genotyping to Monitor Bacterial Infections
 Hospitals Should Use Genotyping to Monitor Bacterial Infections 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

A team led by a pulmonologist-researcher found that in a children’s hospital, an unexpected pathogen emerges as a common cause of infection. The bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii is a widely-reported cause of healthcare-associated infections, particularly in adult intensive care units in developing countries. But a retrospective study of isolated cases at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that Acinetobacter pittii recently emerged…

Why Patients With Diabetes Have More UTIs
 Why Patients With Diabetes Have More UTIs 150 150 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

Insulin regulates an antimicrobial peptide that is suppressed in patients with diabetes. A recent study led by clinicians and researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital reports a potential explanation for why urinary tract infections (UTIs) are so common in patients with diabetes – insulin regulates an antimicrobial peptide (AMP) that is suppressed in those patients. Patients…

Local Learning Health System Model Demonstrates High-Quality Patient Care While Reducing Costs
 Local Learning Health System Model Demonstrates High-Quality Patient Care While Reducing Costs 150 150 Jan Arthur
By: Jan Arthur

Providing high-quality patient care while reducing costs is a significant goal in the current health care reform environment. The Institute of Medicine has specifically called for the establishment of “learning health systems” to address this challenge. In a learning health system, the electronic health record is utilized to drive research and personalized treatments based on…

Many Respiratory Pathogens, One Test: The Respiratory Infection Array
 Many Respiratory Pathogens, One Test: The Respiratory Infection Array 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

A multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay newly available for outpatients is faster and more comprehensive than conventional testing for causes of upper respiratory infection. ‘Tis the season for coughs, runny noses and the challenge of trying to pinpoint which pathogen is causing your patient’s particular upper respiratory infection. Clinical presentations are similar for a number…

Promising Practices and Patient-Centered Medical Neighborhoods for Childhood Obesity
 Promising Practices and Patient-Centered Medical Neighborhoods for Childhood Obesity 150 150 Tiasha Letostak, PhD
By: Tiasha Letostak, PhD

An algorithm for assessment and management of childhood obesity, along with patient-centered medical neighborhoods, provides avenues for comprehensive weight management for children 2 years and older. Although childhood obesity affects 17 percent of children in the United States, and nearly one-quarter of these children are overweight, only a few centers in the country provide evidence-based…

New App Enables Families and Researchers to Track Seizures With an Apple Watch
 New App Enables Families and Researchers to Track Seizures With an Apple Watch 150 150 Gina Bericchia
By: Gina Bericchia

Could a wearable app help children with seizures? With the launch of the Track It! app for Apple Watch, that’s what researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital are hoping to find out. Nationwide Children’s Hospital and SeizureTracker.com recently introduced a new wearable app to help track seizures called Track It!, which free to download for the Apple Watch in the…

Should Melatonin Be Used To Treat Childhood Insomnia?
 Should Melatonin Be Used To Treat Childhood Insomnia? 150 150 Mark Splaingard, MD
By: Mark Splaingard, MD

Mark L. Splaingard, MD, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, answers a question often asked by primary care providers. With some reports that insomnia symptoms are experienced by 20 percent or more of children, health care providers (and parents) often want to know if melatonin is appropriate to use in the…

Understanding Stress Experienced by Survivors of Congenital Heart Disease
 Understanding Stress Experienced by Survivors of Congenital Heart Disease 150 150 Tiasha Letostak, PhD
By: Tiasha Letostak, PhD

For adolescent and adult survivors of congenital heart disease, how they perceive disease-related stress has a key connection to how they report health outcomes, such as quality of life and emotional well-being. Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital are the first to systematically identify different types of disease-related stress experienced by survivors of congenital heart disease,…

Two Genes Linked to Postpartum Immunity Revival in Women With Persistent Hepatitis C
 Two Genes Linked to Postpartum Immunity Revival in Women With Persistent Hepatitis C 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

Research may provide a model for identifying immune factors needed to control chronic infections. Alternative forms of two genes are associated with a boost in immunity to hepatitis C after childbirth, a study led by a Nationwide Children’s Hospital physician-researcher shows. At three months postpartum, the number of viruses circulating in the blood declined sharply…

How to Reduce Necrotizing Enterocolitis in the NICU
 How to Reduce Necrotizing Enterocolitis in the NICU 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

A QI project with simple, inexpensive interventions significantly lowered the NEC rate in one of the country’s largest neonatal units. In 2011, a quality improvement team at Nationwide Children’s Hospital developed a short list of simple, economical strategies to limit necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in its associated…

What Do Space Rocks Have to Do With Preterm Birth?
 What Do Space Rocks Have to Do With Preterm Birth? 150 150 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

A brief history of nanobacteria and their implications for human health. I remember when nanobacteria were a really big deal. Press-conference-by-POTUS-about-evidence-of-extraterrestrial-life-level big deal. I hadn’t thought much about them until recently, when they made a surprise appearance in a presentation on idiopathic preterm birth by Irina Buhimschi, MD, director of the Center for Perinatal Research at The…

New Study Points to a Possible Cause of Many Preterm Births
 New Study Points to a Possible Cause of Many Preterm Births 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

The discovery that small calcium deposits in fetal membranes may lead to a mother’s water breaking prematurely suggests that dietary or other interventions could prevent those preterm births. Most spontaneous preterm births do not have causes that are easy to identify. Physicians frequently have not known why uterine contractions begin weeks earlier than they should,…

Should Hormone Therapy be Considered for Inappropriate Sexual Behavior in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder?
 Should Hormone Therapy be Considered for Inappropriate Sexual Behavior in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder? 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

Families worry when children with autism spectrum disorder display inappropriate sexual behaviors, but specialists say hormonal suppression should not be the first-line approach. Leena Nahata, MD, a pediatric endocrinologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, has seen this kind of case in her own practice, so she suspects that other specialists have as well: An adolescent boy with autism…

From Military Zones to Pediatric Trauma Centers, Implementing Massive Transfusion Protocols
 From Military Zones to Pediatric Trauma Centers, Implementing Massive Transfusion Protocols 150 150 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

While military and adult research has shown massive transfusion protocols to be lifesaving, implementation and validation in pediatrics lags. When someone is critically injured with life-threatening bleeding, the primary objective of the care team is to stop the bleeding and replace the lost blood. Historically, children in this situation were administered red blood cells (RBCs)…

Solving the Problem of Managing Big Genomic Data
 Solving the Problem of Managing Big Genomic Data 150 150 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital complete a first-of-its-kind project to evaluate a large-scale genomic data management system on the scale of up to one million genomes. The influx of genomics data resulting from the increasing affordability of whole exome/genome sequencing and President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative requires a novel technological solution to data storage, communication…

Diagnosing GERD in Neonates? Be Cautious
 Diagnosing GERD in Neonates? Be Cautious 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

Gastroesophageal reflux disease is likely over-diagnosed in neonates, leading to unnecessary and harmful treatment. Approximately 10 percent of infants born preterm in the United States are diagnosed with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). But it’s almost certain that not all of those babies actually have GERD, say neonatologists at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The probable over diagnosis leads to…

A New Use for Kangaroo Care
 A New Use for Kangaroo Care 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

A parent’s touch reduces agitation, allows infants and toddlers to remain extubated after heart surgery. A small percentage of babies and young children who have undergone congenital cardiac surgery and early tracheal extubation are treated with a calming parent’s touch at Nationwide Children’s Hospital – a strategy that physicians have found works better in some…

How to Integrate Genomics into Clinical Practice
 How to Integrate Genomics into Clinical Practice 150 150 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Recommendations from the Clinical Genetics Think Tank outline five key areas of focus for bringing genome and exome sequencing into the clinic. Clinical genome and exome sequencing (CGES) as a diagnostic tool is altering practice for clinical geneticists, genetic counselors and other clinical specialists. The Clinical Genetics Think Tank (CGTT) has identified five areas of…

Great Minds Aren’t Thinking Alike About Asthma Care
 Great Minds Aren’t Thinking Alike About Asthma Care 150 150 Brianne Moore
By: Brianne Moore

A recent audit of the Pediatric Hospital Information System using template matching finds wide variation in care provided to pediatric asthma patients. While asthma is a common and manageable disease, nine people still die from asthma each day. It is well known that asthma is the leading cause of pediatric hospitalization as well as the…

One Dose Probiotic Biofilm Protects Against NEC
 One Dose Probiotic Biofilm Protects Against NEC 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

Probiotic biofilm enables the beneficial bacteria to withstand stomach acid, promote microbial activity and decrease intestinal inflammation. A single dose of a probiotic biofilm grown on microspheres prevented or significantly reduced the severity of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in animal models of the disease, researchers show. This delivery method not only appears to protect against NEC…

Novel Practice Pathway Addresses Problem Behaviors Among Patients With Autism
 Novel Practice Pathway Addresses Problem Behaviors Among Patients With Autism 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

Pediatricians urged to investigate underlying causes. Issues causing children with autism spectrum disorder to be irritable or belligerent can be difficult for parents, teachers and other care providers to uncover. And, wait times to see a specialist may leave a child frustrated, distressed or in physical pain for months. Primary care physicians who see the…

How Can You Optimize Care for Homeless Patients?
 How Can You Optimize Care for Homeless Patients? 150 150 Tiasha Letostak, PhD
By: Tiasha Letostak, PhD

A recent policy statement from the AAP describes how pediatricians can help improve the health and well-being of homeless children in America. As of 2014, the National Center on Family Homelessness reported that a staggering 2.5 million children are homeless each year in America, a historic high representing one in every 30 children in the country. These…

New Guidelines Better Diagnose Common GI Disorders
 New Guidelines Better Diagnose Common GI Disorders 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

The new Rome IV criteria offer guidance to common but often misunderstood conditions. Because there are no clear causes of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs), diagnosis and treatment can be difficult. Some physicians and parents may doubt the disorders exist at all, although pediatric gastroenterologists estimate they affect 30 to 40 percent of children. However, recently…

Minimally-Invasive Technology Proving Itself in Epilepsy Procedures
 Minimally-Invasive Technology Proving Itself in Epilepsy Procedures 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

MRI-guided stereotactic laser ablation may become the option of choice for appropriate patients. MRI-guided stereotactic laser ablation is proving comparable to open surgery in several procedures aimed at controlling epilepsy, researchers report. Importantly, patients’ recovery is considerably easier and shorter than recuperation from traditional surgeries, and while thorough studies are needed, early results indicate fewer…

Use Caution When Prescribing a Gluten-Free Diet
 Use Caution When Prescribing a Gluten-Free Diet 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

A gluten-free diet makes diagnosing underlying conditions difficult and can leave potential, long-term consequences unaddressed. The growing popularity of a gluten-free diet among adults appears to be spilling over to children, with help from the pediatrician’s office. “An increasing number of primary care physicians, who are seeing children with symptoms possibly related to gluten intolerance,…

Oligodendrocytes Induce Motor Neuron Death in ALS
 Oligodendrocytes Induce Motor Neuron Death in ALS 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

A first-of-its-kind oligodendrocyte in vitro model shows that human cells normally supportive of motor neuron function play an active role in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis pathogenesis – and this discovery may point the way toward therapeutic timing and targets. A number of studies over the last decade have shown that cells which normally support motor neurons,…

Personal, Familial and Social Factors Surrounding Child Suicide
 Personal, Familial and Social Factors Surrounding Child Suicide 150 150 Brianne Moore
By: Brianne Moore

As suicide rates among children climb, researchers publish the first study exclusively focused on the precipitating circumstances of children and young adolescents who die by suicide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide was the 10th leading cause of death for children ages 5 to 11 in 2014. This was the first…

A Painful Reality: Care Providers Tend to Underestimate Pain During Pediatric Burn Dressing Changes
 A Painful Reality: Care Providers Tend to Underestimate Pain During Pediatric Burn Dressing Changes 150 150 Krista Wheeler
By: Krista Wheeler

Researchers call for an updated pain scale. Dressing changes have been identified as one of the major contributors to perceived pain during burn care, and so it is important that pain be assessed accurately. But a new study from the Center for Pediatric Trauma Research in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital suggests that pediatric burn…