Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Pediatric Cardiovascular Care In Uganda: Current Status, Challenges, And Opportunities For The Future., Twalib Olega Aliku, Sulaiman Lubega, Judith Namuyonga, Tom Mwambu, Michael Oketcho, John O Omagino, Craig Sable, Peter Lwabi

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

In many developing countries, concerted action against common childhood infectious diseases has resulted in remarkable reduction in infant and under-five mortality. As a result, pediatric cardiovascular diseases are emerging as a major contributor to childhood morbidity and mortality. Pediatric cardiac surgery and cardiac catheterization interventions are available in only a few of Sub-Saharan African countries. In Uganda, open heart surgeries (OHSs) and interventional procedures for pediatric cardiovascular disease are only possible at the Uganda Heart Institute (UHI), having been started with the help of expatriate teams from the years 2007 and 2012, respectively. Thereafter, independent OHS and cardiac catheterization have …

Nasopharyngeal Microbiome Diversity Changes Over Time In Children With Asthma, Marcos Pérez-Losada, Lamia Alamri, Keith Crandall, Robert J. Freishtat

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Background

The nasopharynx is a reservoir for pathogens associated with respiratory illnesses such as asthma. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been used to characterize the nasopharyngeal microbiome of infants and adults during health and disease; less is known, however, about the composition and temporal dynamics (i.e., longitudinal variation) of microbiotas from children and adolescents. Here we use NGS technology to characterize the nasopharyngeal microbiomes of asthmatic children and adolescents (6 to 18 years) and determine their stability over time.

Methods

Two nasopharyngeal washes collected 5.5 to 6.5 months apart were taken from 40 children and adolescents with asthma living in the …

Boiling Histotripsy Lesion Characterization On A Clinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Guided High Intensity Focused Ultrasound System., Avinash Eranki, Navid Farr, Ari Partanen, Karun Sharma, Hong Chen, Christopher T Rossi, Satya V V N Kothapalli, Matthew Oetgen, Aerang Kim, Ayele H Negussie, David Woods, Bradford J Wood, Peter C W Kim, Pavel S. Yarmolenko

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

PURPOSE: High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a non-invasive therapeutic technique that can thermally ablate tumors. Boiling histotripsy (BH) is a HIFU approach that can emulsify tissue in a few milliseconds. Lesion volume and temperature effects for different BH sonication parameters are currently not well characterized. In this work, lesion volume, temperature distribution, and area of lethal thermal dose were characterized for varying BH sonication parameters in tissue-mimicking phantoms (TMP) and demonstrated in ex vivo tissues.

METHODS: The following BH sonication parameters were varied using a clinical MR-HIFU system (Sonalleve V2, Philips, Vantaa, Finland): acoustic power, number of cycles/pulse, total …

Hypertension In The Pediatric Kidney Transplant Recipient., Olga Charnaya, Asha Moudgil

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Hypertension after kidney transplant is a frequent occurrence in pediatric patients. It is a risk factor for graft loss and contributes to the significant burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in this population. The etiology of posttransplant hypertension is multifactorial including donor factors, recipient factors, medications, and lifestyle factors similar to those prevalent in the general population. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring has emerged as the most reliable method for measuring hypertension in pediatric transplant recipients, and many consider it to be essential in the care of these patients. Recent technological advances including measurement of carotid intima-media thickness, pulse wave velocity, and …

Endotypes Of Difficult-To-Control Asthma In Inner-City African American Children., K R Brown, R Z Krouse, A Calatroni, C M Visness, U Sivaprasad, C M Kercsmar, E C Matsui, J B West, M M Makhija, M A Gill, H Kim, M Kattan, D Pillai, J E Gern, W W Busse, A Togias, A H Liu, G K Khurana Hershey

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

African Americans have higher rates of asthma prevalence, morbidity, and mortality in comparison with other racial groups. We sought to characterize endotypes of childhood asthma severity in African American patients in an inner-city pediatric asthma population. Baseline blood neutrophils, blood eosinophils, and 38 serum cytokine levels were measured in a sample of 235 asthmatic children (6-17 years) enrolled in the NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)-sponsored Asthma Phenotypes in the Inner City (APIC) study (ICAC (Inner City Asthma Consortium)-19). Cytokines were quantified using a MILLIPLEX panel and analyzed on a Luminex analyzer. Patients were classified as Easy-to-Control or …

Training Us Health Care Professionals On Human Trafficking: Where Do We Go From Here?, Clydette Powell, Kirsten Dickins, Hanni Stoklosa

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Some 21 million adults and children are labor-trafficked or sex-trafficked through force, fraud, or coercion. In recognition of the interface between trafficking victims and the healthcare setting, over the last 10 years there has been a notable increase in training of health care professionals (HCPs) on human trafficking (HT) and its health implications. Many organizations have developed curricula and offered training in various clinical settings. However, methods and content of this education on trafficking vary widely, and there is little evaluation of the impact of the training. The goal of this study was to assess the gaps and strengths in …

The Current Consensus On The Clinical Management Of Intracranial Ependymoma And Its Distinct Molecular Variants., Kristian W Pajtler, Stephen C Mack, Vijay Ramaswamy, Christian A Smith, Hendrik Witt, Amy Smith, Eugene Hwang, +Several Additional Authors

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Multiple independent genomic profiling efforts have recently identified clinically and molecularly distinct subgroups of ependymoma arising from all three anatomic compartments of the central nervous system (supratentorial brain, posterior fossa, and spinal cord). These advances motivated a consensus meeting to discuss: (1) the utility of current histologic grading criteria, (2) the integration of molecular-based stratification schemes in future clinical trials for patients with ependymoma and (3) current therapy in the context of molecular subgroups. Discussion at the meeting generated a series of consensus statements and recommendations from the attendees, which comment on the prognostic evaluation and treatment decisions of patients …

Plasmodium Falciparum Histidine-Rich Protein-2 Plasma Concentrations Are Higher In Retinopathy-Negative Cerebral Malaria Than In Severe Malarial Anemia., Gregory S Park, Robert O Opoka, Estela Shabani, Alexis Wypyszynski, Benjamin Hanisch, Chandy C John

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Background

Malaria retinopathy has been proposed as marker of “true” cerebral malaria (CM), ie, coma due to Plasmodium falciparum vs coma due to other causes, with incidental P falciparum parasitemia. Plasma P falciparum histidine-rich protein-2 (PfHRP2) concentrations distinguish retinopathy-positive (RP) from retinopathy-negative (RN) CM but have not been compared between RN CM and other forms of severe malaria or asymptomatic parasitemia (AP). Methods

We compared plasma PfHRP2 concentrations in 260 children with CM (247 examined for retinopathy), 228 children with severe malarial anemia (SMA), and 30 community children with AP. Results

Plasmodium falciparum HRP2 concentrations were higher in children with …

Mycn Amplification Is Associated With Repressed Cellular Immunity In Neuroblastoma: An In Silico Immunological Analysis Of Target Database, Peng Zhang, Xiaofang Wu, Moushumi Basu, Chen Dong, Pan Zhang, Yang Liu, Anthony D. Sandler

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Purpose: RNA and DNA sequencing data are traditionally used to discern intrinsic cellular pathways in cancer pathogenesis, their utility for investigating the tumor microenvironment (TME) has not been fully explored. This study explores the use of sequencing data to investigate immunity within the TME.

Experimental design: Here, we use immune cell fraction estimation analysis to determine the immune profiles in the microenvironment of neuroblastoma (NB) based on RNA-seq data in the TARGET database. The correlation between immune cell transcripts and prognosis in pediatric NB is also investigated.

Results: In silico analysis revealed a strong inverse correlation between MYCNamplification and …

Medical Genetics And Genomic Medicine In The United States. Part 2: Reproductive Genetics, Newborn Screening, Genetic Counseling, Training, And Registries, Debra S. Regier, Carlos Ferreira, Suzanne Hart, Donald Hadley, Maximilian Muenke

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

eview of genetics in the United States with emphasis on the prenatal, metabolic, genetic counseling, and training aspects of the field.

Disorders Of Metal Metabolism, Carlos Ferreira, William A. Gahl

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Trace elements are chemical elements needed in minute amounts for normal physiology. Some of the physiologically relevant trace elements include iodine, copper, iron, manganese, zinc, selenium, cobalt and molybdenum. Of these, some are metals, and in particular, transition metals. The different electron shells of an atom carry different energy levels, with those closest to the nucleus being lowest in energy. The number of electrons in the outermost shell determines the reactivity of such an atom. The electron shells are divided in sub-shells, and in particular the third shell has s, p and d sub-shells. Transition metals are strictly defined as …