Pediatrics Commons^™

Refinement Of A Published Gene-Physical Activity Interaction Impacting Hdl-Cholesterol: Role Of Sex And Lipoprotein Subfractions, Kenneth E Westerman, Tuomas O Kilpeläinen, Magdalena Sevilla-Gonzalez, Margery A Connelly, Alexis C Wood, Michael Y Tsai, Kent D Taylor, Stephen S Rich, Jerome I Rotter, James D Otvos, Amy R Bentley, Samia Mora, Hugues Aschard, D C Rao, Charles Gu, Daniel I Chasman, Alisa K Manning

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Large-scale gene-environment interaction (GxE) discovery efforts often involve analytical compromises for the sake of data harmonization and statistical power. Refinement of exposures, covariates, outcomes, and population subsets may be helpful to establish often-elusive replication and evaluate potential clinical utility. Here, we used additional datasets, an expanded set of statistical models, and interrogation of lipoprotein metabolism via nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based lipoprotein subfractions to refine a previously discovered GxE modifying the relationship between physical activity (PA) and HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C). We explored this GxE in the Women’s Genome Health Study (WGHS; N=23,294; the strongest cohort-specific signal in the original meta-analysis), the UK …

Prevalence Of Abuse-Specific Injuries In Infants With Prior Injury Evaluated For Abuse, Nara Cho, Kristin G Crichton, Sara Helwig, Krista K Wheeler, Rachel M Stanley, Megan M Letson, Kristine A Campbell, Angela N Bachim, Colleen J Bressler, Carmen M Coombs, Lori Frasier, Nicole Johnson, Sara Kilbride, Jan Leonard, Daniel M Lindberg, Noelle T Tran, Joanne N Wood, Farah W Brink

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background and objectives: Physical abuse is a common cause of morbidity in infants but is often missed in those with medically minor injuries, increasing the risk for escalating violence. Our objective was to compare the prevalence of abuse-specific injuries among infants with and without prior injuries.

Methods: This is a retrospective, multicenter study of infants (aged < 12 months) undergoing child abuse pediatrics provider (CAP) consultation for suspected physical abuse between 2/2021 and 12/2022 at 10 participating US centers. Encounters were dichotomized into those with and without history of prior injury. The groups were compared for rates of diagnostic screening and prevalence of abuse-specific injuries. The association of prior injuries with identification of abuse-specific injury was assessed using logistic regression controlling for demographics and presence of prior injury.

Results: We identified 2352 eligible encounters (median age: 4.2 months), of which 13% had a history of prior injury. In infants who underwent diagnostic testing, injury identification was significantly higher in those with prior injury (45% vs 22%, P < .05). Adjusting for patient characteristics, the presence of prior injury in infants was associated with higher odds of at least 1 type of abuse-specific injury being identified, compared with those without prior injury (adjusted odds ratio = 2.81, 95% CI = 2.10-3.76).

Conclusion: Infants with prior injury …

Altering The Intracellular Trafficking Of Necator Americanus Gst-1 Antigen Yields Novel Hookworm Mrna Vaccine Candidates, Athos Silva De Oliveira, Leroy Versteeg, Neima Briggs, Rakesh Adhikari, Maria Jose Villar, Jeanna R Redd, Peter Hotez, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Jeroen Pollet

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: The antigen Na-GST-1, expressed by the hookworm Necator americanus, plays crucial biochemical roles in parasite survival. This study explores the development of mRNA vaccine candidates based on Na-GST-1, building on the success of recombinant Na-GST-1 (rNa-GST-1) protein, currently assessed as a subunit vaccine candidate, which has shown promise in preclinical and clinical studies.

METHODOLOGY/FINDINGS: By leveraging the flexible design of RNA vaccines and protein intracellular trafficking signal sequences, we developed three variants of Na-GST-1 as native (cytosolic), secretory, and plasma membrane-anchored (PM) antigens. After one immunization in mice, mRNA vaccines induced an earlier onset of antigen-specific antibodies compared to …

Diagnosis And Management Of Cardiometabolic Disease After Spinal Cord Injury: Identifying Gaps In Physician Training And Practices, Chinenye Christa Nnoromele, Du Pham, Felicia Skelton, Ryan Solinsky

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

CONTEXT: Cardiometabolic disease (CMD) frequently occurs in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI), with growing awareness surrounding the expansive scope of this problem. As CMD has significant morbidity and mortality, early guidelines-based screening and management have been established. However, the extent to which these guidelines have been adopted are unclear.

OBJECTIVE: Describe physicians' screening and management pattern for CMD in patients with SCI, as compared to SCI-specific CMD screening guidelines, and elucidate variables linked to screening and management patterns.

METHODS: SCI medicine-boarded physicians were surveyed on screening timing for CMD following acute SCI, along with their practice pattern and comfort …

Anti-Racist And Anti-Colonial Content Within Us Global Health Curricula, Sanemba Aya Fanny, Amy Rule, Heather L Crouse, James C Hudspeth, Bethany Hodge, Marideth Rus, Heather Haq

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

There is a growing interest to address pervasive racist and colonialist practices in global health (GH). However, there is a paucity of information on anti-racist and anti-colonial (ARAC) education for GH trainees. This study aimed to identify curricular strengths and gaps in ARAC content for pediatric, family medicine and emergency medicine trainees participating in GH. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of GH programs' ARAC curricular content from May 2021 to January 2022. The survey was distributed to 148 GH program educational leaders via email. Descriptive statistics were used to describe quantitative data and comments were reviewed for common themes. The …

Hypertriglyceridemia In New-Onset Type 1 Pediatric Diabetes, Colleen A Macke, Iman Al-Gadi, Nidhi Bansal, Sarah K Lyons, Aikaterini A Nella

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) in the setting of newly diagnosed diabetes is common in both adult and pediatric populations, as insulin deficiency promotes lipolysis and impairs triglyceride (TG) clearance. Severe HTG (defined as TG levels above 1000 mg/dL) in pediatric patients with new-onset type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) is rare; the true incidence and sequela of this phenomenon have not been well characterized. We present a single-center experience on severe HTG in pediatric patients with new-onset T1D between 2013 and 2022 and summarize the cases previously reported in the literature. Our cases display variability in their presentation and in their association with …

Hidden Markov Model For Acoustic Pesticide Exposure Detection And Hive Identification In Stingless Bees, Alex Otesbelgue, Amara Jean Orth, Chandler David Fong, Carol Anne Fassbinder-Orth, Betina Blochtein, Maria João Ramos Pereira

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Pollinator populations are declining globally at an unprecedented rate, driven by factors such as pathogens, habitat loss, climate change, and the widespread application of pesticides. Although colony losses remain difficult to prevent, precision beekeeping has introduced non-invasive strategies for monitoring hive conditions. Acoustic data, combined with machine learning techniques, has proven effective in detecting stressors and specific events in honeybee colonies; however, such methodologies remain underexplored for stingless bees, a group of native pantropical pollinators. Meliponiculture, the practice of keeping stingless bees, is an expanding field that offers significant economic and conservation benefits. Stingless bees are particularly susceptible to pesticide …

A New Interpolated Pseudodifferential Preconditioner For The Helmholtz Equation In Heterogeneous Media, Sebastian Acosta, Tahsin Khajah, Benjamin Palacios

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

This paper introduces a new pseudodifferential preconditioner for the Helmholtz equation in variable media with absorption. The pseudodifferential operator is associated with the multiplicative inverse to the symbol of the Helmholtz operator. This approach is well suited for the intermediate and high-frequency regimes. The main novel idea for the fast evaluation of the preconditioner is to interpolate its symbol, not as a function of the (high-dimensional) phase-space variables, but as a function of the wave speed itself. Since the wave speed is a real-valued function, this approach allows us to interpolate in a univariate setting even when the original problem …