Pediapod from Pediatric Research

Malnutrition and cystic fibrosis in India: Case studies in the US show that children with cystic fibrosis often suffer from vitamin deficiencies. In India, this problem is exacerbated by malnutrition, as Dr Angurana discovered when he studied patients in the northern city of Candigarh. http://www.nature.com/pr/index.html

Pediapod: 24 July 2014 - malnutrition and cystic fibrosis

The Bayley Scales are a suite of IQ-like tests for babies and young children. They're used to assess infant development. But the latest edition of the tests, the Bayley-III, seems to produce higher test scores than its predecessor, the Bayley-II. This is causing problems for researchers like Neil Marlow who use the tests to check the effectiveness of different interventions. Neil decided to compare the two tests. He talks about the results of his study, and its implications, on this month's podcast. http://www.nature.com/pr/index.html

Pediapod: 22 May 2014 - The Bayley Scales

In this podcast we're focusing on children born with extremely low birth weights. Researchers are interested in how quickly these children grow and catch up with their normal birth weight peers. A new study, of children born in the 1990s, suggests that improvements in neonatal nutrition have led to improvements in catch-up growth. The study also looked at gender differences and obesity. Study leader Maureen Hack talks us through the findings. http://www.nature.com/pr/index.html

Pediapod: 20 March 2014 - Catch-up growth

Researchers normally use a radioactive label to track red blood cell survival. But this method is deemed unsafe for infants and children. So an alternative method - one using biotin to label the cells, instead of radioactive Chromium 51 - is good news for pediatrics. Dr. Jack Widness and colleagues from the University of Iowa have tested the biotin labeling method on a group of critically ill premature babies. In this podcast Dr. Widness presents their results and explains how the method could be used to improve transfusion practices for infants with anemia. http://www.nature.com/pr/index.html

Pediapod: 23 January 2014 - A new way to track red blood cell survival in infants

Occasionally, a baby under a year dies unexpectedly in sleep, for no apparent reason. This is known as sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. Studies have thrown up genes and molecules that are sometimes associated with SIDS deaths, but we're a long way from fully understanding the causes. Now, Nathan Salomonis has created a systems-level model of SIDS, to help researchers see how pathways in the brain, heart and immune system are involved - and to identify new targets for research.
www.nature.com/pr/index.html

Pediapod: 25 September 2014 - A new way to understand SIDS

For term-born infants, low birth weight has been shown to correlate with a broad array of adverse cardiometabolic outcomes, and excess glucocorticoid exposure has been linked to these relationships.  Also, intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR) in term-born infants has been linked to subsequent increases in adrenal androgen activity. In this episode, we meet Kristi Watterberg, a professor of Pediatrics at the University of New Mexico who evaluated the relationship between preterm birth to salivary cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) at age 6, and assessed the relationship of cortisol and DHEA with blood pressure and measures of adiposity. The results suggest interventions to improve the cardiometabolic outcomes of infants born extremely preterm.

Article link:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-018-0243-1

Adrenal function links to early postnatal growth and blood pressure at age 6...

Welcome to the Springer Nature Soundcloud page! Here you will find several podcasts from our journals across a range of scientific subjects, including Gene Pod, ModPath Chat, Pediapod, Hereditypod and Brainpod.