Pediatric Research Podcast

We have a good understanding of placebo effects in adults, but how about children? The current literature suggests some significant differences in the way children respond to placebos, but more research is needed to understand these differences properly. In this podcast, Katja Weimer from University Hospital Tübingen explains why it's difficult to study placebo effects in children and how we might overcome these difficulties.

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We have become very good at looking after babies born extremely prematurely, before 32 weeks of gestation. Now researchers are turning their attention to how these children develop, and what specialist care they might need as they grow up. A new study finds that prematurely born children have significant breathing problems after running on a treadmill for several minutes. François Marchal and Jean-Michel Hascoet, who carried out the study, are our May podcast guests.

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The causes of this childhood disease are largely unknown. What we do know is that a child in Japan is 10 times more likely to show symptoms than a child in the United States. Michael Portman, from Seattle Children's Research Institute, thinks this difference is down to diet. In this podcast, he proposes a link between soy consumption and Kawasaki disease.

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Over the last thirty years, our diets have changed and obesity has become more prevalent. In particular, we're now eating fewer foods rich in omega-3. A study based in Copenhagen has found a link between the amount of omega-3 in a mother's breast milk and her child's physical development. In this podcast, study leader Louise Pedersen explains how this finding relates to obesity and gives some advice to pregnant mothers.

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For 50 years, scientists have been trying to make an artificial placenta. Such a device could revolutionise the treatment of extremely premature babies. On this podcast, Yuichiro Miura from Tohoku University in Japan talks about his new, compact design.

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It's well known that smoking during pregnancy damages the developing lungs, increasing the risk of infections in newborns. Researcher Cherry Wongtrakool thinks this damage could extend all the way into adulthood, explaining some of the cases of asthma she sees in her clinic. To work out exactly how this damage occurs, Cherry and colleagues have been taking a closer look at nicotine, the fat soluble and addictive component of tobacco. On this podcast, Cherry explains how nicotine crosses the placenta and affects the function of immune cells in the lung.

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Our daily lives rely on the power of computers. So why not medical diagnosis? Getting the right diagnosis is a challenge, particularly in the emergency room, where up to 15% of patients are misdiagnosed.Could computers lend a guiding hand? Doctors have been trying to use computerized support for decades - but current systems are quite crude, built to deliver 'yes' or 'no' answers. Lorenz Grigull and his colleague Werner Lechner from the Hannover Medical School, Germany, have been working on something new.

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Getting a new drug or treatment from the lab to the clinic, where it can be used to improve the health of patients, takes time. To speed up this process, in 2006 the National Institutes of Health launched a new science award program - the CTSA. In this podcast, we hear how the program is affecting child health research in the US. The results of an initial evaluation are encouraging, but there's room for improvement says pediatric researcher Charles Huskins.

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When a severe ice storm hit the Canadian Province of Quebec, it gave researchers at McGill University the chance to study prenatal stress. On this podcast, we hear how the hardships faced by pregnant women in the weeks after the storm are affecting their children.

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