Pediatrics

Host: Alan S. Brown, MD, FACC, FAHA, FNLA

Like in the United States, Canadian citizens contend with a high pediatric prevelance of lipid disorders, particularly familial hypercholesterolemia. However, perspectives on clinical care and standards public health priorities to address dyslipidemia differ markedly between these two countries. Can American practitioners and health policy experts alike benefit from Canadian approaches to lipidology?

Dr. Alan Brown welcomes Dr. Julie St. Pierre, Professor of Pediatrics at Sherbrooke University in Canada, to discuss pediatric lipid disorder management across North American borders.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP

Joe Klest, Chicago attorney and author of The Whole Truth. Mr. Klest has represented victims in over 500 sexual abuse cases. He and Dr. McDonough discuss clinical recognition methods and action plans for child abuse, legal contexts for reporting, and the need for increased awareness by clinicians in primary care settings.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Denise Daniels, Peabody Award-wining broadcast journalist, author, and child development expert who specializes in the social and emotional development of children. Ms. Daniels talks about the challenges in helping children cope with the consistent exposure to tragic news around the world stemming from terrorism, wars, and natural disasters.

Host: Renée Simone Yolanda Allen, MD, MHSc., FACOG

Babies born before 37 weeks gestation face many challenges in their first weeks of life. For premature babies to thrive in the NICU, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends all preterm babies weighing less than 1500 grams be fed human milk. However, this recommendation creates a dilemma for mothers who are unable to supply their own breast milk and must therefore turn to donation programs to feed their babies.

Dr. Renee Allen chats with Scott Elster, CEO of Prolacta Bioscience, about the goals of breast milk donor programs to improve health outcomes for critically ill preemies, while also reducing NICU costs.

Host: Paul Rokuskie

Recent studies have uncovered sex differences in both the neurobiology and phenotypical presentations of autism. These emerging understandings for how autism manifests uniquely in girls vs boys may radically change the way autism spectrum disorder is clinically perceived, improving diagnostic sensitivity and personalizing therapies.

Joining host Paul Rokuskie to discuss this line of research developments in autism spectrum disorder is Dr. Kaustubh Supekar, research scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine.

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Air pollution is associated with chronic respiratory health problems in children. A new study examined whether decreases in air pollution levels are associated with significant reductions in respiratory symptoms in children.

Researchers from the University of Southern California followed over 4,600 children in eight Southern California communities across three different time periods from 1993-2012. In addition to monitoring air quality, they also looked at children with and without asthma, and whether they reported respiratory symptoms like bronchitis, congestion, phlegm production, or a daily cough for three months in a row, during the previous year.

Along with significant improvements in air pollution levels, the authors found a decrease in reported respiratory symptoms in children both with and without asthma. Respiratory symptoms decreased by 32 percent in children with asthma and 21 percent in children without.

[Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]

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Recent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States have prompted clinicians, public health officials and the public to pay closer attention to the growing phenomenon of vaccine refusal. A new study looks at the role of vaccine refusal and the risk of measles and pertussis. In recent years, a substantial proportion of US measles cases occurred in people who were intentionally unvaccinated. Vaccine refusal was also found to be associated with an increased risk of pertussis in some populations.

[Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]

Host: Paul Rokuskie

Host Paul Rokuski welcomes Dr. Sally Rogers, Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Director of Training and Mentoring at the MIND Institute of the University of California-Davis. Dr. Rogers specializes in conducting developmental and treatment research into autism and other developmental disorders. She is currently focused on developing and improving treatments for early autism using a treatment model that she developed in collaboration with Geraldine Dawson, the Early Start Denver Model.

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Approximately one-third of children who experience a concussion will experience persistent post-concussion symptoms. Researchers have developed a new clinical scoring system that may help predict which patients are at a higher risk for prolonged symptoms.

Canadian researchers evaluated more than 3,000 patients, ages 5 to 18, who presented within 48 hours of an acute head injury. About thirty percent ended up with persistent post-concussion symptoms at 28 days. Researchers identified nine clinical factors that were predictive of post-concussive symptoms. These factors were then used in a twelve point risk score that included items like age, sex, history of migraines or depression, prior history of concussion, and problems with balance.

Although the clinical score was better than a physician's judgement alone, further research is needed before it is fully adopted into clinical practice.

[Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP

Kidney stones are on the rise, particularly among adolescents, females, and African-Americans in the U.S. This marks a striking change from the historic pattern in which middle-aged white men were at highest risk for the painful condition. While the overall increase in kidney stones in children and adolescents has been known, a recent study published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology provided greater clarity on the specific groups of patients at greatest risk by analyzing age, race and sex characteristics among children and adults in South Carolina over a 16-year period, from 1997 to 2012.

Lead author Dr. Gregory Tasian, Assistant Professor of Urology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and an attending pediatric urologist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, joins Dr. Brian McDonough to discuss this startling trend, the factors that may be driving it, and appropriate preventive and treatment strategies for kidney stones.