Through a targeted combination of molecular and microscopy-based techniques, researchers aim to identify new treatment approaches for children with cancer. The Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ) coordinates the project, which is funded by the European consortium ERA PerMed with 1.5 million euros and involves scientific institutions from France, the Netherlands, Finland and Hungary in…
Mosul, Iraq’s second city, is slowly rebuilding its healthcare infrastructure after years of war and destruction. Dr Henryk Pich, a consultant anaesthetist and intensive care physician at the University of Dresden, Germany, visited the region soon after the fighting had ended, supported by the independent aid organisation CADUS. Moved by the makeshift treatment centres he witnessed in the…
United Kingdom manufacturer Paraid is demonstrating its latest version of the IBEX ambulance chair, used by ambulances throughout the UK. This easy-to-use patient transport chair is designed for use across all terrains including restricted, spiral and narrow staircases, the manufacturer reports. ‘The innovative product features a plastic seat and backrest with harness, which allows patients to…
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has become an important adjunct to clinical diagnosis and procedural guidance in the Pediatric Emergency Department (PED), supported by literature demonstrating that its use can improve patient safety and expedite life-saving care. POCUS further helps to reduce costs and children’s exposure to ionizing radiation. Not only is POCUS ideally suited for…
Innovative virtual reality (VR) technologies hold promise in reducing children’s anxiety and pain before and after medical procedures and surgery, suggest two studies that were presented at the Anesthesiology 2018 annual meeting. The first study found virtual reality hypnosis (VRH) reduced anxiety, total postoperative opioid consumption and vomiting in children after scoliosis surgery.…
The ESR and EuroSafe Imaging are proud to announce the publication of the European Guidelines on Diagnostic Reference Levels for Paediatric Imaging in the European Commission’s Radiation Protection Series.
Doctors working in the eight-bed Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital in Madrid extensively use point-of-care ultrasound to evaluate the condition of critically ill children, and they find it essential in their work, as Dr José Luis Vázquez Martínez, Head of PICU at Hospital Ramón y Cajal, with over 25 years’ experience in paediatric intensive care…
For the first time, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Imperial College London, with international collaborators, have determined that Kawasaki disease (KD) can be accurately diagnosed on the basis of the pattern of host gene expression in whole blood. The finding could lead to a diagnostic blood test to distinguish KD from other infectious and inflammatory…
Obesity, cancers and other gastrointestinal diseases have digestive systems all over Europe in a chokehold. In a new report, non-profit organisation United European Gastroenterology (UEG) sheds a spotlight on the issues, challenges and inequalities of digestive health - and points out ways to fix the most pressing problems.
Using a new computational strategy, researchers have identified 29 genetic changes that can contribute to an aggressive childhood cancer. Their work helps to explain “the engine” driving formation of rhabdomyosarcoma and suggests potential treatments.
Early whole genome sequencing might bring hope for children who are born severely ill or who develop serious illness in the first few weeks of their life. Because these children are often difficult to diagnose, detection of diseases has considerable implications for their short and longer-term care. At the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) in Milan, Italy, the…
More than a million neonatal deaths worldwide each year are estimated to be due to sepsis. In the UK there are approximately 90,000 admissions to neonatal intensive care units per year. Nearly all these patients receive antibiotic therapy during their hospital stay, but babies with a specific genetic change can suffer irreversible hearing loss as a result. Now, in a collaboration between…
Pediatric researchers have found that children and adults treated with some oral antibiotics have a significantly higher risk of developing kidney stones. This is the first time that these medicines have been linked to this condition. The strongest risks appeared at younger ages and among patients most recently exposed to antibiotics. “The overall prevalence of kidney stones has risen by 70…
Seasonal allergies can be a nuisance for children as well as adults. And in some young children, the symptoms of seasonal allergies can be mistaken for inattentiveness or learning disabilities. Dr. Maria Garcia-Lloret, a pediatric allergist at the UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital, explains that certain symptoms characteristic of learning disabilities or behavioral problems, such as fidgeting and…
Children raised in a rural environment, surrounded by animals and bacteria-laden dust, grow up to have more stress-resilient immune systems and might be at lower risk of mental illness than pet-free city dwellers, according to new research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study, co-authored by researchers from the University of Ulm in Germany…
Experts in pediatric kidney disease have published a new staging system to help doctors better predict the length of time until a child with chronic kidney disease (CKD) will need to undergo a kidney transplant or start receiving dialysis. Although this type of prognostic guide exists for adults, this is the first such tool specific to children. “We designed a clinically useful, data-driven…
In the second edition of their customer magazine bioLOGICAL, Greiner Bio-One (GBO) presents exciting articles about capillary blood sampling. In the article by Jasna Lenicek Krleza, PhD, learn about which factors you need to pay special attention to in capillary blood collection to get high-quality samples. We'll also take you to the neonatal station and visit our smallest patients using the GBO…
Researchers led by Professor Stefan Pfister from the "Hopp Children's Cancer Center at the NCT Heidelberg" (KiTZ) have been able to draw an extremely detailed molecular map of childhood cancers. In close collaboration with the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) and the Society for Pediatric Oncology and Hematology (GPOH), they screened almost 1,000 tumor samples from 24 cancer types for…
Parents who allow their young children to occasionally sip and taste alcohol may be contributing to an increased risk for alcohol use and related problems when those kids reach late adolescence, according to a new study by a University at Buffalo psychologist. The findings contradict the common belief that letting kids sip and taste alcoholic drinks is harmless, and might even help to promote…
Texas Biomedical Research Institute and The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio have joined forces to cure a mysterious condition called Kawasaki disease. The illness which affects young children is named after the Japanese doctor who first described it more than 50 years ago. However, researchers still do not know what causes the rashes, fever, and artery damage. Some type of infectious agent…
Watching too much television at age 2 can translate into poorer eating habits in adolescence and poorer performance in school, researchers at Université de Montréal’s School of Psychoeducation have found. In a new longitudinal study published in Preventive Medicine, graduate student Isabelle Simonato and her supervisor, Professor Linda Pagani, looked at a birth cohort of nearly 2,000 Quebec…
Children's Hospital Los Angeles is announcing participation in the first-ever clinical trial using stem cells from umbilical cord blood to delay or even prevent heart failure in children born with a rare congenital heart defect that leaves them with half a heart. The Phase I study is part of a multi-center collaboration dedicated to employing innovative therapies to improve outcomes for children…
Each year up to two thousand hearing impaired children are born in Germany. For some of them a cochlear implant can offer relief. So far, it was not clear which processes take place in these children when they start to learn language later than their contemporaries with normal hearing—and why they differ in their success to reach a normal level of language. The Max Planck Institute for Human…
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital oncologists have discovered the cell type that gives rise to rhabdomyosarcoma, the most prevalent soft tissue cancer in children. Previously, scientists thought the cancer arose from immature muscle cells, because the tumor resembled muscle under the microscope. However, the St. Jude researchers discovered the cancer arises from immature progenitors that…
Findings published in Oncotarget offer new hope for children with highly aggressive brain tumors like atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor (AT/RT) and medulloblastoma. Previously, the authors of the study have shown that an experimental drug that inhibits polo-like kinase 4 (PLK4) stopped pediatric brain tumor growth in vitro. Now, they have demonstrated its success in an animal model – the drug…