Nearly half of Black parents (48 percent) were hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccine for their child, compared to 33 percent of Latinx parents and 26 percent of white parents, according to survey results from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
A surprising discovery may offer a promising new direction in the study of multiple sclerosis and other diseases of hypomyelination – when axons of neurons are not covered sufficiently in fatty sheaths (myelin), which disrupts communication between nerve cells.
A study of a geographically, clinically, and socioeconomically diverse, nationally-representative sample of US households – including both adult patients and caregivers of children with food allergy – found that 72 percent did not know what oral immunotherapy (OIT) was prior to the survey.
A study that identified over 14,000 previously employed American families of children with special healthcare needs found that families who had to reduce work hours or leave a job in order to care for their children’s health lost an estimated average of $18,000 a year in household income in 2016-2017.
A national study published in the Journal of Pediatrics found that Emergency Department (ED) visits by youth for self-harm were nearly 40 percent higher in rural areas compared to urban settings. Strikingly, ED visits by youth for self-inflicted firearm injuries were three times more common in rural areas. Youth from rural areas presenting to the ED for suicidal ideation or self-harm also were more likely to need to be transferred to another hospital for care, which underscores the insufficient mental health resources in rural hospitals.
A recently launched Phase IIb randomized clinical trial, led by Sunjay Kaushal, MD, PhD, at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, uses donor stem cells injected into the patient’s heart during surgery, which is expected to improve right ventricular function of children born with a congenital heart disease called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Based on a decade of Dr. Kaushal’s pioneering lab research, clinical experience in adults and positive safety results in the Phase I trial, this stem cell-based strategy promises to extend life expectancy for these children.
While postpartum depression in new mothers is well recognized and known to increase if the newborn requires intensive care, depression in new fathers has not received much attention. A large study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that both parents with a baby in the NICU are at risk, with depression symptoms identified in 33 percent of mothers and 17 percent of fathers. Strikingly, the probability of reporting depression symptoms declined significantly for mothers but not for fathers after the baby came home.
Summer 2021 will be the first time many people venture back in the water following the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent study by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago underscored the need for families to practice water safety and teach children about safety around pools and at the beach.
According to a qualitative study published in JAMA Network Open adolescents expressed feelings of helplessness when exposed to secondhand racism online. Specifically, adolescents described helplessness stemming from the pervasiveness of racism in our society.
Latinx and Black children are enrolled in public and private managed care health plans in greater proportions than white children, according to data from a national survey published in the journal JAMA Network Open. This pattern persists even when controlled by household income and whether a child has special healthcare needs.
A recent survey by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago shows that nearly one-quarter of Chicago parents (22 percent) felt they have been discriminated against on a daily or weekly basis.
In the first study to evaluate the effects of anti-inflammatory nanofibers on wound healing following urethral surgery, scientists from the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago found that this innovative therapy promotes faster and complete healing, preventing prolonged or excessive inflammation that commonly leads to the need for more surgery. Their results were published in the journal Macromolecular Bioscience.
Rajesh Kumar, MD, and Jacqueline Pongracic, MD, from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago received $3 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a site-specific clinical trial on whether a soy supplement in infancy can prevent asthma in children with a high-risk genetic variation. This will be one of the earliest precision medicine approaches to asthma prevention.
A survey of over 32,000 caregivers of youth in Chicago Public Schools found that around a quarter of children and adolescents were described as stressed, anxious, angry or agitated after pandemic-related school closures and the switch to remote learning. Around a third of youth were described by caregivers as lonely and only one-third were described as having positive social and peer relationships. Across the board, caregivers reported significantly worse psychological well-being after school closures as compared to before. Findings were published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Currently, there are no evidence-based rules that help physicians in the Emergency Department (ED) predict if a child with community-acquired pneumonia will have a mild disease course that can be treated at home or a more severe illness that requires hospitalization. A recent study published in the journal Pediatrics found that the predictive accuracy of clinical judgement was generally fair, but clinicians were least accurate when predicting progression to severe disease in children initially classified as having “low to moderate” risk, which accounts for a large portion of children presenting with pneumonia.
Bruising caused by physical abuse is the most common injury to be overlooked or misdiagnosed as non-abusive before an abuse-related fatality or near-fatality in a young child.
Rates of prolonged visits for pediatric mental health emergency department (ED) visits increased over a decade, in contrast to non-mental health visits for which visit times remained stable, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics. From 2005-2015, rates of ED visits lasting over six hours for children presenting for mental health issues jumped from 16 percent to nearly 25 percent, while rates of visits lasting over 12 hours increased from 5 percent to nearly 13 percent.
Women who were vaccinated for COVID-19 earlier in their third trimester had a higher likelihood of passing protective antibodies to their newborn babies than women who received their vaccination closer to delivery, a new study from Northwestern Medicine and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago has found.
A Northwestern University-led research team has developed a novel skin-mounted sticker that absorbs sweat and then changes color to provide an accurate, easy-to-read diagnosis of cystic fibrosis within minutes.
A recent survey by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago shows the toll the pandemic is taking and estimates that 70,000 toddlers and children in the city—at a minimum—are showing symptoms that may be connected to detrimental mental and behavioral health.
A national survey of parents revealed that most parents who used ride-share services did so with their children, but only half of the respondents reported that children who were 8 years or younger traveled in the recommended child car seats or booster seats when in ride-share vehicles. Among parents of children in this age group, over 40 percent used only a seat belt for their child, while 10 percent allowed their child to travel on a lap or unrestrained. Overall, parents reported lower rates of child car seat use in ride-share compared with how their child usually travels.
The first large study of more than 13 million visits to 44 pediatric Emergency Departments (ED) found that Black and Latinx children were less likely to receive x-rays, CT, ultrasound, and MRI compared with white children. These findings, published in JAMA Network Open, were consistent across most diagnostic groups and persisted when stratified by public or private insurance type.
An international, open-label Phase 3 study, co-led by Susanna McColley, MD, from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, found that a regimen of three drugs (elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor) that targets the genetic cause of cystic fibrosis was safe and effective in 6-11-year-olds with at least one copy of F508del mutation in the CFTR gene, which is estimated to represent almost 90 percent of the cystic fibrosis population in the United States.
Anne Berg, PhD, Research Professor, and Sandi Lam, MD, MBA, Chief of Neurosurgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago have been approved for a $4 million funding award by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to conduct a study, Comparative effectiveness of palliative surgery versus additional anti-seizure medications for Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome.
While neurological complications of COVID-19 in children are rare, in contrast to adults, an international expert review of positive neuroimaging findings in children with acute and post-infectious COVID-19 found that the most common abnormalities resembled immune-mediated patterns of disease involving the brain, spine, and nerves. Strokes, which are more commonly reported in adults with COVID-19, were much less frequently encountered in children. The study of 38 children, published in the journal Lancet, was the largest to date of central nervous system imaging manifestations of COVID-19 in children.
Todd Florin, MD, MSCE, Director of Research for the Division of Emergency Medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, has been elected Strategy & Operations Officer (SOO) at the Society for Pediatric Research (SPR) – a prestigious organization founded in 1929 that strengthens and supports the pediatric research community by creating a network of multidisciplinary researchers to improve child health.
Parents who reported more hassles using a child car seat or booster seat – such as the child is uncomfortable or having to make multiple trips in a day – were less likely to follow recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on child passenger safety, according to a study published in the journal Academic Pediatrics.
While managed care has become the predominant form of Medicaid coverage for youth, researchers found only a modest increase in the receipt of preventive care services in this population, with marked variation across states. Whereas some states experienced improvements in preventive care services delivery for children as they implemented managed care, others did not.
Scientists from the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago found that a region within the DNA of the cancer-promoting GLI1 gene is directly responsible for regulating this gene’s expression. These findings, published in the journal Stem Cells, imply that this region within GLI1 could potentially be targeted as cancer treatment, since turning off GLI1 would interrupt excessive cell division characteristic of cancer.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges to parenting for Chicago moms and dads as entire families live, work and attend school together at home, according to a survey from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
Scientists from the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago demonstrated that a nanotherapy reduces intestinal inflammation and shrinks lesions in a rodent model of severe Crohn’s disease. This approach could become an alternative to biologic antibody therapies that carry many side effects, including increased risk of certain cancers. It might also prevent the need for surgery in the future. Findings were published in the journal Advanced Therapeutics.
Sensor-based inhalers integrated into health care providers’ clinical workflows may help improve medication adherence and support children with asthma – and their families – to more effectively manage this condition, according to a new Northwestern and Lurie Children’s study published in Pediatrics.
Scientists from Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago were able to regenerate functional urinary bladder tissue in a rodent model using human bone marrow derived stem and progenitor cells. Their findings, published in Scientific Reports, offer great promise to children suffering from end stage bladder dysfunction, for whom surgery carries significant risks.
Black children have significantly higher rates of shellfish and fish allergies than White children, in addition to having higher odds of wheat allergy, suggesting that race may play an important role in how children are affected by food allergies, researchers at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Rush University Medical Center and two other hospitals have found.
During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly one in four families responded that they would be unlikely to bring their child to the Emergency Department if they had an emergency condition, according to a survey from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine. Greater hesitancy to seek emergency care was found in families living in under-resourced communities, those who rely on public insurance and in families who are Black, Latinx or Asian.
The Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research (CFAAR), at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, announced the launch of the Intervention to Reduce Early Peanut Allergy in Children (iREACH) study. iREACH is a five-year, randomized clinical trial, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), aimed at assessing and improving pediatric clinician adherence to the 2017 prevention of peanut allergy guidelines developed by an expert panel sponsored by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Chicago parents continue to voice predominant concern about bullying and are turning most often to their children’s schools for help, according to new survey results from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
An interdisciplinary team from Northwestern University and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago developed and clinically tested soft, flexible, miniaturized sensors that gently adhere to the child’s forehead to wirelessly monitor changes in cerebral blood flow and oxygenation, to alert clinicians of potential need to intervene and restore equilibrium. Findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Defective cilia in the brain may play a role in some forms of severe schizophrenia, according to a study published in Nature Communications.
A novel drug called vamorolone may improve the efficacy of corticosteroid treatment for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy — a rare form of inherited and progressive muscular dystrophy, according findings from a clinical trial published in the journal PLOS Medicine.
More than three in five Chicago parents (64 percent) were very concerned about COVID-19 affecting their family’s health, according to new survey results released by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Chicago parents were surveyed May – July, 2020. Their responses are in sharp contrast to the results from a national poll in July, which found that only 49 percent of U.S. adults were very worried about COVID-19 infecting them or someone in their family.
New questions are at the forefront as a study published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology from nine children’s hospitals finds that most asymptomatic children who tested positive for COVID-19 had relatively low levels of the virus compared to symptomatic children. The authors caution that the reason for this finding is unclear and more questions need to be answered. Were the asymptomatic children generally tested later in their disease, and were their viral loads potentially higher closer to the beginning of their infections? If tested early in disease, would asymptomatic children have viral loads as high as symptomatic children? Or do asymptomatic children typically not carry as much virus as children with symptoms? If so, how would lower viral loads impact the risk of transmission? These questions are essential to further clarify the public health impact of pediatric COVID-19.
Epilepsy surgery in children with refractory epilepsy, who have poor seizure control with medications, results in better outcomes, according to a study published in the journal Neurosurgery.
A first of its kind drug called vosoritide may increase bone growth in children with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, according to findings from a recent clinical trial published in The Lancet.
New findings from scientists at Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago have revealed previously unknown information about the genetic basis for Armfield XLID syndrome, a rare intellectual disability linked to genetic defects in the X chromosome.
Traditionally, geneticists divide disorders into “simple,” where a single gene mutation causes disease, or complex, where mutations in many genes contribute modest amounts. A new study suggests that the truth is somewhere in between.
Biomarkers using mass cytometry can assess patient response to an emerging vaccine for a specific pediatric brain tumor, according to a recent multi-center study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
In Chicago, only 36 percent of parents with low household income reported being in better health, compared to 57 percent of parents with low to middle income and 75 percent of parents with high income, according to a survey released by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH).
Scientists from Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago were the first to examine endothelial cells – one of the main sources of blood production – for clues as to why people with Down syndrome have higher prevalence of leukemia. They identified a new set of genes that are overexpressed in endothelial cells of patients with Down syndrome. This creates an environment conducive to leukemia, which is characterized by uncontrolled development and growth of blood cells. Their findings, published in the journal Oncotarget, point to new potential targets for treatment and possibly prevention of leukemia, in people with Down syndrome and in the general population.
Artificial intelligence, or “supervised machine learning,” could help identify which well-appearing infants with fever, who are 60 days old or younger, are at low risk for a serious bacterial infection, according to a study published in Pediatrics. Accurate risk determination could reduce unnecessary lumbar puncture, antibiotics and hospitalizations for these infants, as well as decreasing parental anxiety.
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