2017

Macrophages, a type of white blood cell involved in inflammation, readily take up a newly approved medication for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and promote its sustained delivery to regenerating muscle fibers long after the drug has disappeared from circulation, an experimental model study led by Children’s National Health System researchers finds. 

Leading pediatric oncology experts at Children’s National Health System will join thousands of their peers in Washington, D.C., for the 49^th Congress of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) Oct. 12-15.

As a nationally recognized expert in the field of transfusion medicine, Dr. Delaney will lead efforts to unify Children’s divisions of Anatomic Pathology and Laboratory Medicine into a single division while advancing cutting-edge practices in the laboratory to ensure the highest standard of quality and safety for patients. 

Children’s National Health System will receive more than $550,000 funding to lead a three-year, multi-center trial that will study a low intensity, chemotherapy-free transplantation approach to cure patients with sickle cell disease using a matched related donor. 

Using a novel imaging technique, Children’s National Health System researchers demonstrate for the first time that the brains of infants born with congenital heart disease (CHD) already show signs of functional impairment even before they undergo corrective open heart surgery. 

Clinicians managing Zika-affected pregnancies should use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in addition to standard ultrasound (US) because the more detailed MRI images can reveal more extensive areas of damage to the developing fetal brain, according to research presented during IDWeek 2017.

During their lifetimes, the tainted Aedes mosquitoes that spread Zika virus only fly a few hundred feet from where they hatch. And Zika hotspots—Texas and Florida domestically and dozens of nations around the world—all lie a fair distance from the nation’s capital. Still, the Congenital Zika Virus Program at Children’s National Health System evaluated 36 women and their fetuses from January 2016 through May 2017. Another 14 women and their infants were referred to the Zika program for postnatal consultations during that time.

Six companies presenting innovative medical device solutions that address significant unmet needs in pediatric health were awarded a total of $250,000 in grant money yesterday in San Jose, Calif. at the Fifth Annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium, organized by the Sheikh Zayed Institute.

The nation’s emergency departments had low rates of complying with recommended HIV and syphilis screening for low-income adolescents, though larger hospitals were more likely to provide such evidence-based care, according to a study presented during the 2017 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) national conference.

Efforts to prevent child abuse by people who care for children should extend to additional categories of caregivers since injuries that children suffer at the hands of their parent’s male partner, babysitter or daycare worker are likely to be more severe, according to research presented during the 2017 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) national conference.