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

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…

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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

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…

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Hormonal Contraception Safer Than Expected For Women With Diabetes
Hormonal Contraception Safer Than Expected For Women With Diabetes 150 150 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…

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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

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…

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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

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…

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Hospitals Should Use Genotyping to Monitor Bacterial Infections
Hospitals Should Use Genotyping to Monitor Bacterial Infections 150 150 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…

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Why Patients With Diabetes Have More UTIs
Why Patients With Diabetes Have More UTIs 150 150 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…

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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

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…

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Many Respiratory Pathogens, One Test: The Respiratory Infection Array
Many Respiratory Pathogens, One Test: The Respiratory Infection Array 150 150 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…

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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

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…

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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

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…

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Should Melatonin Be Used To Treat Childhood Insomnia?
Should Melatonin Be Used To Treat Childhood Insomnia? 150 150 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…

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Understanding Stress Experienced by Survivors of Congenital Heart Disease
Understanding Stress Experienced by Survivors of Congenital Heart Disease 150 150 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…

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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

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…

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How to Reduce Necrotizing Enterocolitis in the NICU
How to Reduce Necrotizing Enterocolitis in the NICU 150 150 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…

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What Do Space Rocks Have to Do With Preterm Birth?
What Do Space Rocks Have to Do With Preterm Birth? 150 150 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…

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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

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…

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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

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…

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Stronger Together: A Multi-institutional Database Is Connecting Down Syndrome Clinics for Better Outcomes
Stronger Together: A Multi-institutional Database Is Connecting Down Syndrome Clinics for Better Outcomes 1024 575 Stephanie Santoro, MD

Due to medical advances, people with Down syndrome are living longer than ever before. This increased life expectancy has nearly doubled in the past 25 years. The National Down Syndrome Society estimates that 400,000 people with Down syndrome are living in the United States.…

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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

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.…

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