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Pediatric Academic Societies meeting roundup

The Pediatric Academic Societies meeting, held in Toronto in May, included about 100 basic-science and clinical research presentations from Children's Hospital Boston. Here are some highlights:

• During the past decade, researchers in Children's Department of Neurology and Program in Neuroscience have documented the complex web of molecular insults leading to newborn brain injury. Now, preclinical data suggest that injury can be ameliorated with existing drugs, if given at the right time. In rat models, the Alzheimer's drug memantine attenuated periventricular leukomalacia in premature newborns (a leading cause of cerebral palsy), while adding the diuretic bumetanide to traditional anticonvulsants significantly shortened the duration of newborn seizures. A phase I study of bumetanide will soon begin, and a trial of memantine may follow.


• Stem-cell treatment may be a possible way of improving bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) suggests a study from Children's Division of Newborn Medicine. Mesenchymal stem cells, given to mice through a vein, reduced lung injury, improved lung physiology and reduced pulmonary hypertension, a major BPD complication.


• Thin newborns who fatten up rapidly may be at risk for high blood pressure finds another Newborn Medicine researcher. Studying 530 children, researchers found that, at age 3, those who were born thin but gained the most weight-for-length at 6 months had systolic blood pressures averaging 5.5 mm Hg higher than children whose weight-for-length was highest at birth and lowest at 6 months.


• Teen mothers can improve their parenting skills despite poverty, isolation and depression. Girls participating in a 12-week parenting group, offered through Children's Young Parents Program, showed greater empathy toward their babies, embraced disciplinary methods other than corporal punishment, and had more appropriate developmental expectations of their infant even one year later.


• Vitamin D deficiency is common in infants and toddlers, reports Children's Bone Health Program. Of 234 healthy children studied, 38 percent had suboptimal vitamin D levels and 11 percent were frankly deficient. Thirty-six percent of breastfed infants not on vitamin D supplements were deficient, as were 31 percent of 18-month-olds who weren't drinking milk. The findings will likely guide new care recommendations.


• Are parents taking care of their kids' teeth? Not necessarily, finds a study from Children's Primary Care Center. Only 53 percent of children in the study (ages 1 month to 7 years) brushed their teeth twice daily, 58 percent flossed rarely or never, 30 percent drank in bed and 63 percent of households used bottled water as their sole source of drinking water (decreasing the amount of fluoride they get). Fifty-nine percent of 24-month-olds hadn't yet seen a dentist, and 24 percent of parents didn't think their pediatrician ever looked at their child's teeth.

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