Pediatric Research Podcast

Metabolic syndrome has been a growing problem in recent decades in both adult and pediatric populations. Time-restricted feeding (TRF), has been shown to attenuate metabolic disorders and obesity in adults. It is thought to be superior to surgical interventions and other dietary patterns as it is non-invasive, and does not lead to unbearable hunger. However, there is a lack of data on its effects in pediatric populations. n this episode, we meet Dr. Dandan Hu, who during her time at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, carried out an experiment using a paediatric mouse model to assess the effects of TRM on their metabolism and microbiota. The results were unexpected.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Pediatric asthma is a chronic, heterogeneous disease that can be triggered by environmental exposures, leading to urgent medical visits. Numerous studies have demonstrated increases in emergency department visits and hospitalizations in association with increasing concentrations of outdoor ambient pollutants. Social and environmental stressors have also been shown to be associated with a stronger relationship between environmental pollutants and asthma development and symptoms.In this study, Dr Lovinski-Desir from Columbia University Medical Center and her team aimed to determine if the relationship between ambient pollutants and urgent visits for asthma varied between New York City neighborhoods with high versus low asthma prevalence.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Metabolomics has the potential to identify specific targets for primary prevention of metabolic disease. Studies in adults have shown that lean vs obese people show distinct differences in their metabolite composition, sometimes preceding the development of established risk factors associated with metabolic disease. The literature in paediatric populations, however is scant. In this episode, we speak to Prof. Wei Perng, who during her time at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, examined the associations between metabolite composition and metabolic risk across adolescence.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, we meet Kristin Keunen from The University Medical Centre Utrecht. She and her team used postnatal neuroimaging to map early developmental trajectories of structural brain wiring in preterm and full-term neonates.The study provides valuable insights into the early stages of structural connectome development.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Telemedicine is estimated to be used in 25% of patient-doctor interactions. It has benefits, including patient's not having to travel and being seen by healthcare professionals when community clinics are closed. But it is considered a high-stress clinical activity and involves decision making under conditions of uncertainty and urgency.In this episode, we speak to Motti Haimi, a Pediatrician and hemato-oncologist at the Clalit Health Services in Israel. He and his team conducted a qualitative assessment of a Pediatric Telemedicine Service operating in Israel in order to assess challenges according to the physicians themselves.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The relationship between birth-weight and heart disease is well documented and is thought to arise from altered developmental trajectories leading to persistent deficits in organ structure and function.Most animal studies looking at the effects of adverse in utero environment have been studied in the context of fetal hypoxia. Less is known regarding the cardiac consequences of maternal malnutrition, a common cause of fetal growth restriction.In this episode, ECI Dr. Brian Stansfield from Augusta University, Georgia, US and his team use a new guinea pig model to test the effects of global maternal nutrient restriction spanning pre-gestation, gestation, and lactation.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Obesity has been shown to be linked with a host of physiological and psychological problems, such as cancer, diabetes and depression. In adults, obesity has also been shown to be related to decreased cognitive function and structural brain differences. The evidence for this effect on cognition is less well established in children and adolescents. In this episode we meet Dr. Stijn Vantieghem from the ARCS research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel who conducted a 30 week weight-loss program for obese adolescents to test its effects on their cognitive function.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in the United States. It's all been steadily rising, along with rising obesity levels. Currently, early interventions for NAFLD include dietary, lifestyle counselling, and vitamin supplementation. Recent evidence suggests that the gut microbiota may be involved in the pathophysiology of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.In this episode, we hear from ECI Maggie Stanislawski from the University of Colorado on her work to expand the options for early intervention into this condition.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

TB was responsible for 1.8 million deaths in 2015, of which children account for almost 10%. A large proportion of TB patients go undetected in high burden countries due to the poor sensitivity of the smear microscopy used to detect the disease. Paediatric cases are often harder to detect because children produce lower quality sputum samples needed for the smear microscopy. As a result, many children with TB go untreated, and the vast majority of children treated for TB are treated empirically. Georgies Mgode, a research fellow at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania, and his team have tested the use of trained Giant African Pouch rats as an enhanced case finding tool after smear microscopy.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Livio Provenzi is based at the Scientific Institute IRCCS Eugenio Medea in Italy, where he is involved in the Preterm Behavioral Epigenetics Project, a longitudinal research project in very pre-term infants looking at the long and short-term epigenetic and behavioral effects of painful and invasive procedures during the NICU stay. Livio and his colleagues sought to provide normative neurobehavioral data for healthy infants over the first month of life using the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Network Neurobehavioural Scale (NNNS).Acquiring normative comparisons for at-risk populations (e.g. pre-term infants) is key for behavioral studies and for research on early epigenetic biomarkers of developmental risk.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A major source of second hand smoke (SHS) exposure in infants is the home. Some parents are aware of this risk and make efforts to minimise the exposure by employing a total ban on smoking in the home. However many families opt for a partial smoking ban, only smoking in certain rooms, at certain times, or at certain distances from the child and practice avoidance behaviours like opening windows.In order to better understand how parents' smoking behaviours affected SHS exposure in children, Dr Yi Nam Suen from the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, and her team developed a questionnaire for non-smoking mothers with young infants, and measured salivary cotinine levels in their infants.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

During her PhD Maria Luisa Tataranno performed research into early biomarkers of brain development in preterm neonates. Now a fellow of neonatal neurology of the Wilhelmia Children's Hospital in Utrecht, the Netherlands, Maria and her team have published a paper into the associations between early brain activity and changes in brain morphology and microstructure.In this episode, Maria tells us about her career as a clinical scientist and advocates the early monitoring of preterm neonate brain activity with electroencephalography.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Patients with sickle cell disease often experience severe pain as a result of vaso-occlusive episodes. Typically their pain is managed with opioids, however some patients experience continued and increasing pain, believed to be as a result of opioid-induced hyperalgesia or tolerance. Many patients go on to develop chronic pain which is thought to have a neuropathic component, for which opioids are ineffective.Ketamine has been suggested as an adjuvant to opioids to treat chronic and acute pain.In this episode, we meet an Early Career Investigator, Dr. Raissa Nobrega, who has a passion for paediatric pain management and who recently published an exploratory study into the patient characteristics that affect the response to ketamine and opioids in these patients.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There are approximately 130,000 infants hospitalised each year in the US due to bronchiolitis. The majority of these cases are caused by either rhinovirus or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Rhinovirus is associated with increased risks of acute and chronic respiratory outcomes compared with RSV, however the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.In this episode, Kohei Hasegawa from the department of emergency medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses his recent experiment aimed at unravelling the underlying mechanisms between the two viruses' different outcomes by comparing the nasal airway microRNA profiles of infants infected with either virus.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Over the past twenty years, new sciences have developed around the delivery of high quality, safe healthcare, and Pediatric Research has recognized these developments with the creation of a new section dedicated to research in these areas. In this episode, we discuss the Quality and Patient Safety section with newly-appointed editor, Peter Lachman.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One system which is thought to falter in preterm neonates is the cerebrovascular autoregulatory system, which helps to maintain a constant supply of oxygen to the brain. When this system falters in the setting of hypotension, it can lead to intraventricular haemorrhage, which in turn, can lead to serious neuro-developmental impairment. In this episode, we meet Zachary Vesoulis, a Pediatrician at Washington University in St. Louis, who recently published a Pediatric Research paper testing the effects of gestational age on the cerebrovascular autoregulatory system. We also discuss what Zach sees as a missed opportunity to collect data in the clinic.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It has been known for over 20 years that antidepressant exposure in utero may be associated with poor neonatal adaptation and discontinuation like symptoms in neonates. Poor neonatal adaptation syndrome, or 'PNAS' presents as a distinct set of gastrointestinal, neurological and respiratory symptoms. In this episode we meet Professor Megan Galbally, Foundation Chair in Perinatal Psychiatry at the University of Notre Dame, to discuss her recent Pediatric Research paper examining the use of the Neonatal Abstinence Scoring System in assessing neonates exposed to antidepressants in utero and providing some rare long-term follow up of these children's developmental outcomes at 6 months. We also discuss a commentary article from the Pediatric Policy Council on this topic, and how her study can be expanded upon by following these results further with the children, preferably up to adulthood.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Veerajalandhar Allareddy is a pediatric cardiac critical care physician in the Stead Family Children's Hospital, University of Iowa. In recent years, he has become interested in marrying his clinical work with studies into public health issues in pediatrics, which he believes are under researched and under reported. In this episode we discuss one such issue: the rising trend of opioid abuse in children across the US.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hypoxia-ischemia (HI) is a major cause of neurological damage in preterm neonates. Physical exercise in mothers serves as a non-pharmacological intervention to counteract obesity, hypertension, and other such risk factors for prematurity. For this reason, women are widely encouraged to swim throughout their pregnancy. In this episode, Eduardo Farias Sanches discusses how he and his team wanted to test the neuroprotective effects of pregnancy swimming against the damage caused by HI and to understand possible mechanisms behind these effects.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Simone Schuller is a pediatrician at the Boston's Children Hospital. She was awarded the Max Kade fellowship to conduct research into neonatal innate immune pathways to aid the development of vaccines for the very young. Previously, Simone was at the Medical University of Vienna, where she recently completed her residency and clinical training. In this episode, we hear how she has strengthened her laboratory experience over the years in a number of countries and has used some of these in vitro skills in a recent Pediatric Research paper about the effect of Pentoxyfylline on the preterm infant immune system in a model of sepsis.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.