Pediatrics News and Research

Latest Pediatrics News and Research

Another reason for not smoking during pregnancy

According to a new study by doctors at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, although the overall risk of such abnormalities in fingers and toes is relatively low, just half a pack of cigarettes per day increases the risk to the baby by 29 percent, compared to non-smokers.

11 Jan 2006

Non-prescription cough medicine won't help that cough

According to a panel of experts in the U.S. cough medicines bought over the counter do little good and may in fact harm children.

9 Jan 2006

Girls and black infants have better chances of survival when born very premature

Black baby girls born weighing 2.2 pounds or less are more than twice as likely to survive as white baby boys born at the same weight, when many preemies are still too tiny to make it on their own, University of Florida researchers have found.

6 Jan 2006

Rotateq eliminates the most severe cases of rotavirus

In a study of more than 68,000 infants published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the investigational vaccine Rotateq demonstrated that it can safely prevent 98 percent of severe cases of viral diarrhea and vomiting that account for 2 million hospital visits and 500,000 pediatric deaths each year worldwide.

6 Jan 2006

Abstinence and Abstinence-Only Education: A Review of U.S. Policies and Programs

While few Americans remain abstinent until marriage and most initiate sexual intercourse as adolescents, abstinence from sexual intercourse is an important behavioral strategy for preventing human immunodeficiency virus, other sexually transmitted infections, and unintended pregnancy among adolescents

5 Jan 2006

SUVs no safer than cars for children

Research from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia shows that children riding in SUVs have similar injury risks to children who ride in passenger cars.

5 Jan 2006

Children more likely to survive in-hospital cardiac arrests than adults

Children are more likely to survive in-hospital cardiac arrests than adults and with appropriate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the survival rates for both children and adults are higher than previously thought.

5 Jan 2006

UCLA examines disease-versus-disease interactions

The knowledge that one disease may prevent the onset of another is not new. For example, the discovery that cowpox vaccines can prevent smallpox dates back to 1798.

5 Jan 2006

Reduced rates of lung function decline in cystic fibrosis clinical study patients

Although cystic fibrosis patients in clinical trials had more severe illness, worse lung function, a lower weight level and more respiratory infection than non-participants, their involvement in research studies resulted in less lung function decline over a 7-year period.

2 Jan 2006

Unsafe neighborhoods linked to overweight children

Children who live in neighborhoods that their parents believe are unsafe are more likely to be overweight than those in neighborhoods perceived as safe, according to a study in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

2 Jan 2006

Stroke risk increases when children with sickle cell disease cease transfusions

Stopping regular blood transfusions in children with sickle cell disease who are at risk for a stroke means their stroke risk likely will return, researchers have found.

30 Dec 2005

University of Michigan Medical School to study the science of obesity and metabolism

As millions of Americans prepare their New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, eat better or exercise more, the University of Michigan Medical School is launching a new center that may help explain why so many resolutions fail, while others succeed.

29 Dec 2005

Oncologist should be the primary decision maker in some pediatric cancer situations

The oncologist should be the primary decision maker in some pediatric cancer situations, say researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston in an article appearing today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

29 Dec 2005

Children could be saved from neuroblastoma using antibody therapy

Combination of T cell, antibody to neuroblastoma cells and molecule that spurs T cell growth is designed to treat low initial tumor levels or small cancer cell populations that survive initial treatment, according to St. Jude.

22 Dec 2005

New treatment for chronic Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Data from a Phase II study of eltrombopag, an oral investigational drug that increases the production of platelets, demonstrate that the compound was effective in increasing platelet counts in patients with chronic Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a disorder characterized by episodes of frequent spontaneous bruising, mucosal bleeding, and in severe cases intracranial hemorrhage, and acute episodes of severe bleeding.

12 Dec 2005