Kids

When transitioning to a new sleep pattern at the start of the school year, teenagers may suffer interrupted sleep, daytime weariness, and changes in mood and attention.

According to the National Sleep Foundation and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, most teenagers receive fewer than eight hours of sleep every night, even though they require eight to ten hours to sustain physical health, mental well-being, and scholastic success. A new study from RUSH published in the journal SLEEP gives light on how teens might obtain more shut-eye.

“There are a lot of changes a teen goes through,” said Stephanie J. Crowley, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and the director of the Pediatric Chronobiology and Sleep Research Program at RUSH. “One specifically is a change to sleep biology that happens during puberty.”

“The brain systems that control sleep change in such a way that it’s easier for an adolescent to stay awake later into the evening. One of these systems — the 24-hour circadian clock — shifts later in time,” Crowley said.

So there are two competing forces: one to go to bed earlier for the school schedule and the other a biological change that happens naturally to a teen’s body.

Because of this complex conflict, RUSH researchers set out to test a two-week intervention that targets the circadian system with different behavioral measures and tries to help the teens figure out a better nighttime routine.

To combat teen sleep deprivation, the researchers used bright light therapy on two weekend mornings for a total of 2.5 hours. The bright light cues the internal clock to wake up a little earlier. This shift should make it easier for the teen to fall asleep at an appropriate time.

Less tired, irritable with increased Sleep

Crowley and her team then helped counteract sleep deprivation by providing time management tools and addressing barriers to an earlier bedtime, like limiting certain after-school activities.

Researchers were able to shift the teens’ bedtime by an hour and a half earlier, and their total sleep time increased by approximately an hour.

“The interesting thing is that teens with late circadian clocks shifted by up to two hours earlier,” Crowley said. “And the teens who had an earlier circadian clock didn’t need to be shifted any earlier. They just needed the behavioral support of trying to manage their time in the evening and increase their sleep duration.”

The youths in the intervention group were also less exhausted, angry, and concerned, and they had improved focus, according to the study. The kids’ morning alertness also improved.

The RUSH researchers are following up with participants in another trial to see if the teens were able to sustain their better sleep habits.

Also Read: Did you know? Practising weight exercise every day lowers your chance of death?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), heart disease accounts for 17.7 million deaths in India. These figures include include children with congenital heart defects (CHDs). Experts discussed the symptoms of CHD in newborn newborns. “Congenital heart disease refers to a structural abnormality in the heart that exists from birth (CHD). It is the most frequent congenital defect among newborns. These diseases present in a variety of ways: some appear immediately after birth, others in the first week after your newborn is discharged from the hospital, and still others later in life “Dr. Naveen Prakash Gupta, Senior Consultant Neonatology at Madhukar Rainbow Children’s Hospital, confirmed this.\

Swelling in the legs, belly, or around the eyes, excessive exhaustion, lethargy, or a blue tint to the skin or lips (cyanosis) are some of the signs to watch for, according to Dr. Dhiren Gupta, Senior Consultant, Gangaram hospital (New Delhi). He feels that all newborn newborns should have their pulse oximeters checked.

Dr Naveen emphasised that “if your kid is having difficulties feeding or quick breathing especially after feeding or heavy perspiration after feeding or he/she appears blue, you should assume cardiac issues.” Sometimes only the hands and feet are blue while the rest of the body is pink, which might be due to the chilly environment.

In order to detect cardiac problems, the lips or tongue should be blue.”

“Many structural cardiac abnormalities can be detected during a standard prenatal ultrasound. An prenatal scan performed at 20-22 weeks of gestation typically detects significant structural issues in the heart “He continued.

Heart problems in newborn newborns are divided into two categories: those in which the baby is blue (referred to as cyanotic heart disease) and those in which the baby is pink but has other concerns such as feeding difficulty, excessive sweating, decreased urination, and failure to gain weight. Acyanotic heart disease is the medical term for this ailment.

Many issues arise later in life (after newborn kids have been discharged), and parents are unaware of them.

“A simple test called pulse oximetry screening may assist to discover cardiac abnormalities in your new born,” says Dr. Naveen. A pulse oximeter is a device that detects blood oxygen saturation.”

“All neonates born in the hospital should have pulse oximetry screening,” he argues. All neonates should have their oxygen saturations tested on the right hand and either foot at 24 hours of age. If the saturation level at each location is more than or equal to 95%, it is referred to as a negative screen (indicating that the infant does not have a cardiac issue).

A positive screen is one in which the saturation level at either location is less than 90%. (meaning there is a probability that the baby may have a heart problem). If the screen comes up positive, we should do a definitive test echocardiography (heart ultrasound) before release to confirm or rule out structural heart disease.”

“If the saturation level is 90-94 percent, the procedure should be done again at one-hour intervals. It is a negative screen if the saturation is more than or equal to 95% on any of the repeat readings. It is a positive screen if the saturation is less than 90% on any of the repeat readings.

If saturation levels remain between 90 and 94% on subsequent measures, consider it a negative screen and schedule an echocardiography. Also, if the saturation difference between the upper and lower extremities is greater than or equivalent to 4% on two to three successive tests separated by one hour, consider it a positive screen,” he stated.

Experts advise parents to visit a paediatric cardiologist. He will do echocardiogram on you and explain the situation. Not all cardiac disorders necessitate medical intervention. A paediatric cardiologist, on the other hand, will describe the technique and provide a timetable for when the echocardiogram may be repeated.

A cardiologist may be of tremendous assistance if your infant or child has a cardiac disease that requires treatment; he can admit the baby and execute the appropriate intervention.

Also Read: Study discovers what connects human senses and thinking

Follow Medically Speaking on Twitter Instagram Facebook

Identification and prompt remedial procedures remain a source of worry in Indian households, where over 6.5 crore individuals suffer from partial or total hearing loss.

In India, the organised hearing aid sector sells 5 to 6 lakh units every year, which indicates that more than 99 percent of the population suffering from hearing loss is exposed to larger problems like as dementia, depression, and balance.

Mr Dave Fabry, Chief Innovation Officer, Starkey Hearing Technologies, says, “It takes anything between 4 to 6 years for a person suffering from hearing loss to go for professional help. Identification of the problem remains a problem worldwide. Untreated hearing loss triggers problems including cognitive disorders, dementia and depression besides others.”

“We are working with stakeholders including central and state governments, medical professionals and others to increase awareness towards the problem,” added Mr Akhil Chauhan, Managing Director, Starkey Hearing Technologies.

Speaking about the latest artificial technology ‘Evolv AI’, Chauhan says, “It will lay the groundwork for an entirely new hearing ecosystem that not only emphasizes the impact of hearing on overall health and wellness but also creates an effortless user experience.”

The new AI technology reduces noise by about 40 per cent, thereby significantly improving comfort and clarity.

“If hearing aid is used at an early stage in kids, it helps them achieve their full potential. Not using hearing aid in kids, people who actually need it – triggers problems including cognitive disorders, dementia, depression and issues related to low confidence,” says Fabry.

He added that hearing aids today can monitor physical activity and social engagement, automatically detect falls, and serve as an intelligent virtual assistant, in addition to improving speech intelligibility in quiet and noisy listening environments.

According to WHO, the major reason behind hearing loss and ear diseases is ear wax and non-infectious causes such as ageing and presbycusis. “The major causes of hearing loss and ear diseases in India have been listed by the WHO survey. Ear wax (15.9 per cent) was the most common cause of reversible hearing loss. Non-infectious causes such as aging and presbycusis are the next most common causes of auditory impairment in India (10.3 per cent).”

Also Read: Study reveals link between diabetes, urinary tract infections

According to one study, if a pregnant woman contracts COVID-19, the infection, no matter how little, impacts the placenta’s immune response to future infections.

The findings were reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. “This is the largest study of placentas from women who received COVID-19 during their pregnancies to date,” stated senior author Dr Kristina Adams Waldorf of the University of Washington School of Medicine. “We were startled to see that pregnant women who have COVID-19 had placentas with a reduced immune response to new infection.”

This discovery, according to Adams Waldorf, “was the tip of the iceberg” in terms of how COVID-19 can alter foetal or placental development.

Because there were so few kids born with COVID-19 infection early in the pandemic, many people believed that COVID-19 did not appear to harm the developing baby.

“But what we’re discovering today is that the placenta is sensitive to COVID-19, and infection alters the way the placenta operates, which is likely to impair foetal development,” Adams Waldorf said.

“Studies on how COVID-19 could effect foetal or child development have been quite restricted to far since the children are still very young,” said co-author Dr Helen Feltovich, professor and associate medical director for maternal-fetal medicine imaging at Intermountain Healthcare in Utah.

“Our findings imply that kids delivered to COVID-19-infected women at any time during their pregnancy should be closely observed as they grow,” she added.

Until delivery, the placenta supplies sustenance, oxygen, and immunological protection to the foetus. According to research done by Adams Waldorf, women who contract COVID-19 have a considerably greater death rate than women who do not get COVID-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, several research have revealed that pregnant women are more likely to be hospitalised or have a premature delivery.

Adams Waldorf and Feltovich concur that it is unknown how various COVID-19 variations may influence the mother or foetus.

“”Studying each variety in real-time is quite difficult,” Adams Waldorf said, “because they just keep coming so rapidly that we can’t keep up.” We do know that the COVID-19 Delta variation was harmful to pregnant women since there was an increase in stillbirths, maternal deaths, and hospitalizations during that time period.”

Regardless of the variety, Adams Waldorf emphasised the importance of women not contracting COVID-19.

Women who are pregnant should first be vaccinated and boosted, and then continue to mask and stay inside a strict bubble of vaccinated and boosted persons. She recognises that this may imply isolation for the remainder of the pregnancy.

“The condition might be slight or severe, but we’re still detecting aberrant effects on the placenta,” she explained. “It appears that when a pregnant woman contracts COVID-19, the placenta is fatigued by the infection and cannot regain its immunological function.”

A total of 164 pregnant women were evaluated in this study, with 24 uninfected healthy patients serving as a control group and 140 women infected with COVID-19. Both groups gave birth at the same time, between 37 and 38 weeks. When patients with COVID-19 were compared to those without, preterm delivery occurred at nearly three times the rate. According to the research, over 75% of COVID-19 patients were either asymptomatic or had moderate symptoms.

Also Read: Risk of bleeding decreases when persons who are taking blood thinners quit taking aspirin

Placental tissues were collected with patient consent from the Intermountain Healthcare Research Institutional Review Board in Salt Lake City, Utah, or the University of Washington Human Subjects Division in Seattle, Washington. Medical personnel gathered placental tissues at the time of birth.

Follow Medically Speaking on Twitter Instagram Facebook

Researchers from Northwestern Medicine discovered that a novel medicine was extremely successful in lowering the signs and symptoms of moderate-to-severe eczema in a new multi-site international phase III research. This is the first trial to use a biologic therapy (monoclonal antibody) instead of immune-suppressing drugs to treat moderate-to-severe eczema in babies and children aged 6 months to 5 years.

After a 16-week treatment of dupilumab, a medicine that targets a critical immune mechanism in allergens, more than half of the children saw at least a 75% decrease in eczema symptoms, substantial reductions in itching, and better sleep. This is the first large-scale, randomised, placebo-controlled trial of a monoclonal antibody in children as young as six months old for any skin disease, including eczema. The study, which included 31 sites in Europe and North America, will be published in The Lancet on September 15.

According to the lead study author Dr Amy Paller, chair of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and an attending physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, “preschoolers who are constantly scratching, awake multiple times a night with their parents, irritable and markedly limited in their ability to do what other children their age can do improved to the extent that they sleep through the night, change their personalities, and have a normal life — as babies and children should.”

Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is a chronic inflammatory skin condition that causes itching, red, dry skin, and frequent weeping. It can have a significant impact on the life of both the patient and their family.

More than one-fifth of all children under the age of six are thought to have eczema and 85 to 90 per cent of those who have the condition as a whole experience its commencement in the first five years of life.

The crippling itch of the kids causes sleep disruption, poor neurocognitive growth, and, on average, a full night of lost sleep every week.

Infants and young children who suffer greatly from this disease will live far better lives if they can take this medication, according to Paller. “There is a lot more to atopic dermatitis or eczema than just scratchy skin. It is a fatal condition. Severe eczema has a quality of life that rivals many illnesses that are potentially fatal, not just for the child who has it but also for the parents.”

This study led to the availability of this drug for infants and preschoolers as young as 6 months. According to Paller, it has “an amazing safety profile” and doesn’t even need any laboratory tests before the prescription is started.

The remaining one-third or more of young children with eczema have the moderate-to-severe illness and require more active therapy, even if half to two-thirds of them have mild symptoms that can be managed with steroid ointment and moisturisers.

“Up to now, all we have had to treat more severe eczema is immune-suppressing medications, such as oral steroids, which we try to avoid in children because they are associated with so many side effects and thus are not a preferred treatment for a chronic skin disease,” Paller said. “The potential long-term impact on the development of the immune system in young children is also of concern with these immunosuppressants.”

The first “biologic” treatment to treat eczema in a targeted manner or a focused attack on only what researchers have discovered is causing the disease’s skin symptoms, has recently been accessible and is called dupilumab. This medication was determined to be efficient and secure in tests involving adults, adolescents, and other school-aged children.

However, Paller noted that children under 5 were not assessed for safety and could not receive this drug.

The child receives a monthly shot of the drug from a parent or medical professional.

“The effect for most of these younger children is dramatic and at least as good as we’ve seen with the risky immunosuppressant medications,” Paller said.

Potential added benefit by treating associated allergies

Although it has been proven to be helpful in treating asthma, gastrointestinal allergy symptoms, and other allergy-related issues, this medicine is not currently licenced for use in newborns and young children.

In fact, more than 80% of children in this experiment had already developed at least one allergic disease, such as asthma or a food allergy, by the time the dupilumab was started. 66% of children in this trial had eczema during the first six months of life.

“By treating more aggressively to calm the immune system activation in these young children with early, severe eczema, we may also reduce the risk of their developing a range of allergic problems, changing their life beyond improving eczema,” Paller said. “These associated allergic issues most often begin after eczema starts.”

Every four weeks for 16 weeks, children were randomly assigned to receive either a placebo injection or the weight-based dose of dupilumab. The only kids who could enrol were those whose topical treatments weren’t working well on them, and even then, their severity level had to be high.

Paller noted that as a result of the study, researchers and medical experts would be able to better understand the links between eczema and a variety of allergy issues, as well as decide whether to utilise this treatment for other disorders that afflict these very young children.

Also Read: Children with primary immunodeficiency may be at higher risk of serious Covid-19 complications

Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience discovered that children who have a traumatic brain injury (TBI), even if it is minor, have more emotional and behavioural issues than children who do not.

“These hits to the head are hard to study because much of it depends on recall of an injury since the impacts do not all require a visit to a doctor,” said Daniel Lopez, a PhD candidate in the Epidemiology program and first author of the study published in NeuroImage. Daniel added, “But being able to analyze longitudinal data from a large cohort and ask important questions as this gives us valuable information into how a TBI, even a mild one, impacts a developing brain.”

Researchers analysed MRI and behavioural data from hundreds of youngsters in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. They discovered that children with a moderate TBI had a 15% greater chance of developing an emotional or behavioural issue.

The danger was greatest in youngsters under the age of 10. Researchers discovered that children who had a major blow to the head but did not fulfil diagnostic criteria for a moderate TBI were at a higher risk of developing these behavioural and emotional issues.

The University of Rochester Medical Center is one of 21 study sites for the National Institutes of Health ABCD Study.

Since 2017, 340 children from the greater Rochester area have been part of the 10-year study that is following 11,750 children through early adulthood. It looks at how biological development, behaviours, and experiences impact brain maturation and other aspects of their lives, including academic achievement, social development, and overall health.

Researchers hope future ABCD Study data will better reveal the impact these head hits have on mental health and psychiatric problems.

“We know some of the brain regions associated with increased risk of mental health problems are impacted during a TBI,” said Ed Freedman, Ph.D., associate professor of Neuroscience and co-principal investigator of the ABCD Study at the University of Rochester. Freedman also led this study. “With more time and data, we hope to gain a better understanding of the long-term impact of even a mild TBI.”

A international research team led by UCL has created an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm capable of detecting minute brain irregularities that cause epileptic seizures.

The Multicentre Epilepsy Lesion Detection project (MELD) algorithm was created utilising over 1,000 patient MRI images from 22 international epilepsy centres to report the locations of abnormalities in cases with drug-resistant focal cortical dysplasia (FCD), a primary cause of epilepsy. FCDs are brain areas that have developed incorrectly and commonly result in drug-resistant epilepsy. Surgery is commonly used to treat it, but doctors have a hard time locating the lesions on an MRI since MRI scans for FCDs might seem normal.

The scientists employed about 300,000 places throughout the brain to quantify cortical properties from the MRI scans, such as how thick or folded the cortex/brain surface was.

The system was then trained on cases that experienced radiologists had classified as either having FCD or being a healthy brain based on their patterns and attributes.

In general, the algorithm was successful in identifying the FCD in 67% of instances in the cohort, according to the results, which were published in Brain (538 participants).

Also Read: Veterans are reluctant in seeking help for sleep, substance issues, study finds

Radiologists had previously been unable to uncover the abnormalities in 178 of the patients based on their MRI results; however, the MELD algorithm was able to detect the FCD in 63% of these cases.

This is crucial because, if doctors can identify the anomaly in the brain scan, surgery to remove it could result in a recovery.
Mathilde Ripart, a co-first author from the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, stated: “We focused on developing an AI system that was interpretable and could assist physicians in making decisions. A crucial step in that process was demonstrating to the doctors how the MELD algorithm generated its forecasts.

Dr Konrad Wagstyl, a co-senior author from the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, added: “This algorithm might make it easier to identify these concealed lesions in epileptic children and adults, which would increase the number of patients who could potentially benefit from brain surgery to treat their condition and enhance cognitive function. In England, epilepsy surgery could help about 440 kids a year.”

Epilepsy is a severe neurological illness that affects 1% of the world’s population and is marked by recurrent seizures.
About 600,000 people in the UK are impacted. The majority of epilepsy patients can be treated with pharmaceuticals, although 20-30% of them do not benefit from them.

FCD is the most frequent cause in children who have had surgery to treat their epilepsy, and it is the third most frequent cause in adults.

Furthermore, FCD is the most frequent reason for epilepsy in people who have a brain anomaly that cannot be seen on an MRI scan.
Dr Hannah Spitzer, a co-first author from Helmholtz Munich, stated: “Our system automatically learns to detect lesions from thousands of patient MRI scans. It is capable of accurately identifying lesions of various sorts, forms, and sizes, including several that radiologists had previously overlooked.

Dr Sophie Adler, a co-senior author from the University College London’s Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, added: “We believe that this technology may assist to discover abnormalities that are now being missed that cause epilepsy.

In the long run, it might make it possible for more epilepsy patients to undergo possibly curative brain surgery.

This FCD detection study makes use of the biggest MRI cohort of FCDs to date, making it capable of identifying all FCD subtypes.

The 22 hospitals participated in the study employed varied MRI scanners from across the world, which increased the algorithm’s robustness but may have impacted its sensitivity and specificity.

Follow Medically Speaking on Twitter Instagram Facebook

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) damage, a type of knee injury that most frequently happens during sports, is becoming increasingly common in kids and teens, claims a research. Surgery should be carried out as soon as feasible for adolescents and young adults with ACL injuries when it is recommended. However, there is a twofold increase in the likelihood of delayed surgery for kids and teens whose parents don’t understand English.

The journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research published the study’s results. ACL rips hurt and may become permanently disabled if left untreated.

Most surgeons agree that surgery should be carried out within a month or two of the accident if it is necessary, which is typically the case with young athletes. Longer delays might cause more serious, permanent knee injury.

Sports medicine expert Neeraj M. Patel, MD, MPH, MBS, and colleagues examined 543 young patients who underwent ACL surgery at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. 16 was the average patient age, and both boys and girls were evenly represented. The authors analysed the timing of surgical procedures between 113 patients whose preferred language was not English and 430 patients whose families spoke Spanish at home (more than 90% of these patients’ families spoke Spanish at home).

The patients with parents who spoke a language other than English were twice as likely to have surgery more than 90 days after the accident, the researchers discovered. Even if the researchers took into consideration the patients’ insurance status, this disparity was still seen.

Orthopedic surgery departments are urged by Dr. Patel and his colleagues to offer more equal care to kids and teens whose parents speak a language other than English. Some of the tactics they advise are:

* Increasing the number of multilingual medical professionals,

* Making arrangements for improved interpreter availability,

* By making health information readily available in the local community’s native tongues,

* Collaborating with primary care physicians, community groups, and schools to promote awareness of ACL injuries, speed up diagnosis, and

* Teaching medical staff members how to make sure that families are aware of the suggestions for managing an ACL injury and are actively involved in the choice of whether to have surgery.

Also Read: Researchers find novel method for treating neurological disorders in patient cells and animals

The authors state that “institutions should build a culture of care that is attentive to and ready for persons whose preferred language is not English.” This should entail asking questions to and interacting with such families to learn more about their particular healthcare requirements, prejudices they deal with, and hurdles to care.

Follow Medically Speaking on Twitter Instagram Facebook

Poor eating habits and weight increase are associated with emotional eating, which is the act of utilising food as a coping mechanism for unpleasant, elevating, or stressful sensations. An investigation into teen vulnerability to emotional eating was released by Elsevier in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. The article also covers how various feeding techniques, such as child engagement, food as a reward, and limitation, impact eating behaviour.

“It has previously been discovered that emotional eating is more learned than inherited. This study looked at how parents interact when feeding their kids as well as what kids learn from seeing their parents eat “said the study’s primary author, Joanna Klosowska, MSc, of the Ghent University’s Department of Public Health and Primary Care in Ghent, Belgium. With 218 families, the pilot study was done in 2017. Longitudinal data gathered in 2013 were furthermore accessible. The Child Feeding Questionnaire, the Child Feeding Practices Questionnaire, and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire were each completed by one parent from each home. With the help of the child-reported FEEL-KJ questionnaire, emotion control was evaluated. The researchers measured the adolescent’s height and body weight.

During the four years from 2013 to 2017, which spanned late childhood to middle adolescence, several parenting techniques evolved. Parents reported enhanced monitoring and good feeding habits modelling, despite the stated levels of food restriction and the healthy atmosphere remaining the same. During the same time period, teenagers reported a considerable increase in emotional eating, from below average in 2013 to above average in 2017, according to norms for the Dutch population. Additionally, the inappropriate method in which they handled their emotions was connected to emotional eating.

Also Read: Researchers find flu shot linked to lower risk of stroke

Emotional eating was made worse by food as a reward and food monitoring, especially when teenagers utilised unhealthy coping techniques to handle their emotions. Child involvement in meals had the opposite effect because it was associated with higher levels of emotion regulation and lower levels of emotional eating. It’s noteworthy to observe that adolescents consumed less food out of emotion when their parents practised restrained eating.

This study shows that parental influence on children’s eating behaviours persists far into adolescence, according to Klosowska. More study is needed to completely comprehend how a parent’s regulated eating influences a child’s emotional eating.