Third Trimester Development of Central Autonomic Network Connectivity is Altered in an Extrauterine Environment.

Introduction: The Central Autonomic Network (CAN), which involves complex interconnected brain regions that modulate the autonomic nervous system, may be key to understanding higher risk for psychosocial and behavioral challenges in preterm neonates.

Methods: We compared resting state functional connectivity of the CAN in 94 healthy term-born controls and 94 preterm infants at term-equivalent age (TEA). In preterm infants we correlated CAN connectivity with postmenstrual age (PMA).

Fetal Brain MRI Abnormalities in Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex Deficiency.

Background And Objectives: Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex deficiency (PDCD) is a disorder of mitochondrial metabolism that is caused by pathogenic variants in multiple genes, including . Typical neonatal brain imaging findings have been described, with a focus on malformative and encephaloclastic features. Fetal brain MRI in PDCD has not been comprehensively described.

Characteristic Fetal Brain MRI Abnormalities in Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex Deficiency.

Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex deficiency (PDCD) is a disorder of mitochondrial metabolism that is caused by pathogenic variants in multiple genes, including . Typical neonatal brain imaging findings in PDCD have been described, with a focus on malformative features and chronic encephaloclastic changes. However, fetal brain MRI imaging in confirmed PDCD has not been comprehensively described.

Pearls & Oy-sters: Delayed Response to Pyridoxine in Pyridoxine-Dependent Epilepsy.

Inborn errors of metabolism are a diverse group of genetic disorders including many that cause neonatal-onset epilepsy such as pyridoxine-dependent epilepsy (PDE). PDE occurs secondary to biallelic pathogenic variants in and can present with refractory neonatal seizures and status epilepticus. Neonatal seizures and encephalopathy are modifiable with pyridoxine (vitamin B6) supplementation.

Racial Disparity in the Associations of Cotinine with Insulin Secretion: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2007-2012.

Background: Although relationships between smoking/high cotinine and type 2 diabetes have consistently been observed, few studies have investigated the relationship between cotinine and underlying pathophysiological defects that characterize diabetes aetiology. This study aimed to test the associations between cotinine and measures of insulin resistance or insulin secretion.

Methods: This analysis included 5,751 non-diabetic adult American from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2007-2012.

Do static and dynamic insulin resistance indices perform similarly in predicting pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes?

Aims: We designed a study to compare the predictive power of static and dynamic insulin resistance indices for categorized pre-diabetes (PDM)/type 2 diabetes (DM).

Methods: Participants included 1134 adults aged 18-60 years old with normal glucose at baseline who completed both baseline and 6-years later follow-up surveys. Insulin resistance indices from baseline data were used to predict risk of PDM or DM at follow-up.

Family-based hip-hop to health: outcome results.

Objective: This pilot study tested the feasibility of Family-Based Hip-Hop to Health, a school-based obesity prevention intervention for 3-5-year-old Latino children and their parents, and estimated its effectiveness in producing smaller average changes in BMI at 1-year follow-up.

Design And Methods: Four Head Start preschools administered through the Chicago Public Schools were randomly assigned to receive a Family-Based Intervention (FBI) or a General Health Intervention (GHI).

Results: Parents signed consent forms for 147 of the 157 children enrolled.

Early origins of child obesity: bridging disciplines and phases of development -- September 30--October 1, 2010.

This report summarizes a conference: "Early Origins of Child Obesity: Bridging Disciplines and Phases of Development", held in Chicago on September 30-October 1, 2010. The conference was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and the Williams Heart Foundation, to achieve the conference objective: forging a next-step research agenda related to the early origins of childhood obesity. This research agenda was to include working with an array of factors (from genetic determinants to societal ones) along a continuum from prenatal life to age 7, with an emphasis on how the developing child deals with the challenges presented by his/her environment (prenatal, parental, nutritional, etc.

Engaging Chicago hospitals in the baby-friendly hospital initiative.

Breastfeeding is now widely recognized as a vital obesity prevention strategy and hospitals play a primary role in promoting, supporting and helping mothers to initiate and maintain breastfeeding. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) provides an evidence-based model that hospitals can use to plan and implement breastfeeding quality improvement (QI) projects. Funding under Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW), administered by the CDC, brought together key Chicago partners to provide individualized support and technical assistance with breastfeeding QI projects to the 19 maternity hospitals in Chicago.

Next steps in obesity prevention: altering early life systems to support healthy parents, infants, and toddlers.

There is an urgent need for effective, sustainable child obesity prevention strategies. Progress toward this goal requires strengthening current approaches to add a component that addresses pregnancy onward. Altering early-life systems that promote intergenerational transmission of obesity holds promise for interrupting the continuing cycle of the obesity epidemic.

Association of adiposity trajectories with insulin sensitivity and glycemic deterioration: a longitudinal study of rural Chinese twin adults.

Objective: To evaluate associations between adiposity trajectories over time and insulin sensitivity and glucose deterioration in a Chinese twin cohort.

Research Design And Methods: This study focused on 341 males and 292 females aged 20-50 years at baseline who had physical clinical examinations and oral glucose tolerance test at two time points with an average of 6 years apart. BMI, waist circumference, percent body fat (PBF), and percent trunk fat (PTF) trajectories were classified into five track groups based on age- and sex-specific tertiles at each visit.

Effect of neuromuscular warm-up on injuries in female soccer and basketball athletes in urban public high schools: cluster randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of coach-led neuromuscular warm-up on reducing lower extremity (LE) injuries in female athletes in a mixed-ethnicity, predominantly low-income, urban population.

Design: Cluster randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Chicago public high schools.

Short sleep duration is associated with insulin resistance independent of adiposity in Chinese adult twins.

Objective: To investigate the association between sleep duration and insulin resistance in rural Chinese adults and examine whether any such associations are independent of adiposity.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional analysis of 854 men and 640 women aged 20 to 70 years from the Anqing Twin Cohort. The following measures were obtained for each subject: Body mass index (BMI) and percentage of trunk fat (%TF), fasting plasma glucose, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), self-reported sleep duration and measures of snoring and sleep disturbance from the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Indices (PSQI) questionnaire were modified for a Chinese population.

A population-based twin study on sleep duration and body composition.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between sleep duration and body composition and to estimate the genetic contribution of sleep duration and body composition in a Chinese twin population. This cross-sectional analysis included 738 men and 511 women aged 21-72 year. Anthropometric and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) measures of body composition were used.

C-reactive protein in adolescent twins: patterns and relationship to adiposity.

Context: Elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) is a marker of cardiovascular risk in adults. Patterns and determinants of CRP in adolescents have not been well described.

Objective: This study aimed to determine how CRP varies by age, gender, Tanner stage, and body fat composition in rural Chinese adolescents and to what degree adiposity-CRP associations are attributable to shared genetic and environmental factors.

Association of adipokines with blood pressure in rural Chinese adolescents.

Previous research has demonstrated that adipokines influence blood pressure (BP). Limited data exist in healthy adolescents, who are in a critical period for preventing the development of high BP. This study investigated the association of leptin, adiponectin and the leptin-to-adiponectin ratio (LAR) with BP in rural Chinese adolescents.

Outcomes of the 5-4-3-2-1 Go! Childhood obesity community trial.

Objectives: To determine effects of the 5-4-3-2-1 Go! community social marketing campaign on obesity risk factors.

Methods: We randomly assigned 524 parents of 3- to 7-year-old children to receive 5-4-3-2-1 Go! counseling or not. We surveyed parents about 5-4-3-2-1 Go! behaviors and perceptions of children's behaviors at baseline and one year later.

Prediabetes is not all about obesity: association between plasma leptin and prediabetes in lean rural Chinese adults.

Objective: This study investigated the associations of plasma leptin levels with insulin resistance (IR) and prediabetes in relatively lean, rural Chinese men and women.

Design And Methods: This study included 574 subjects aged 21-45 years from a community-based twin cohort. Plasma leptin concentrations were measured by sandwich immunoassays using flowmetric xMAP technology.

Adiposity is inversely related to insulin sensitivity in relatively lean Chinese adolescents: a population-based twin study.

Background: Adolescence is a critical period for rising adiposity and falling insulin sensitivity (IS), but the independent relation between adiposity and IS remains understudied.

Objective: The objective was to examine which adiposity measures are most strongly associated with IS in nondiabetic adolescents, whether sex-difference exists, and to what degree genetic or environmental factors affect the adiposity-IS relation.

Design: The study included 1613 rural Chinese adolescents (888 males) aged 13-20 y from a population-based twin cohort.

Association of plasma leptin concentrations with adiposity measurements in rural Chinese adolescents.

Context: There is evidence that leptin is involved in the etiology of obesity-related cardiovascular disease in adults. This raises the question of whether leptin levels in adolescence are indicative of adiposity-related cardiovascular risk.

Objective: This study investigated gender-specific patterns of plasma leptin during adolescence, assessed which adiposity measurements are most strongly associated with plasma leptin, and estimated to what degree leptin-adiposity associations are influenced by genetic factors.

Genetic and environmental contributions to phenotypic components of metabolic syndrome: a population-based twin study.

The increasing prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) poses a serious public-health problem worldwide. Effective prevention and intervention require improved understanding of the factors that contribute to MS. We analyzed data on a large twin cohort to estimate genetic and environmental contributions to MS and to major MS components and their intercorrelations: waist circumference (WC), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), triglycerides (TGs), and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C).

Prevalence of obesity among children and/or grandchildren of adult bariatric surgery patients.

Background: Clinical experience suggests that some adults who undergo bariatric surgery have children who are obese. Childhood obesity is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in later life. This study examined the prevalence of obesity among children and grandchildren (< or =12 years of age) of adult bariatric surgery patients.