Patient and carer transition outcomes and experiences at the Westmead Centre for Adolescent and Young Adult Health, Westmead, Australia: protocol for a longitudinal cohort study.

Introduction: The Westmead Centre for Adolescent and Young Adult Health is a purpose-built facility supporting integrated care for young patients with a variety of long-term health conditions transitioning from paediatric services at the Children's Hospital at Westmead to adult services at Westmead Hospital, Australia.

Methods And Analysis: This protocol outlines a prospective, within-subjects, repeated-measures longitudinal cohort study to measure self-reported experiences and outcomes of patients (12-25 years) and carers accessing transition care at the Centre for Adolescent and Young Adult Health. Longitudinal self-report data will be collected using Research Electronic Data Capture surveys at the date of service entry (recruitment baseline), with follow-ups occurring at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months and after transfer to adult services.

In utero smoking exposure induces changes to lung clearance index and modifies risk of wheeze in infants.

Background: Fetal exposure to tobacco smoking throughout pregnancy is associated with wheezing in infancy. We investigated the influence of in utero smoking exposure on lung ventilation homogeneity and the relationship between lung ventilation inhomogeneity at 7 weeks of age and wheezing in the first year of life.

Methods: Maternal smoking was defined as self-reported smoking of tobacco or validated by exhaled (e)CO > 6 ppm.

Bronchiolitis hospital admission in infancy is associated with later preschool ventilation inhomogeneity.

Background: Rhinovirus (RV) positive bronchiolitis episodes in infancy confer a higher risk to develop asthma in later childhood with associated lung function impairments. We aimed to investigate the association between the type of virus causing a bronchiolitis hospitalization episode and lung ventilation inhomogeneities at preschool age.

Methods: Infants hospitalized with a clinical diagnosis of moderate (ward admission) or severe (pediatric intensive care ward admission) bronchiolitis were prospectively followed-up at preschool age to assess nitrogen (N ) multiple breath washout (MBW).

The association of exhaled nitric oxide with air pollutants in young infants of asthmatic mothers.

Background: Exhaled nitric oxide is a marker of airway inflammation. Air pollution induces airway inflammation and oxidative stress. Little is known about the impact of air pollution on exhaled nitric oxide in young infants.

The microbiota in eosinophilic esophagitis: A systematic review.

Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is an atopic disease of the esophagus that has shown a significant increase in incidence and prevalence in the last 20 years. The etiology of EoE is unclear, and few studies explore the esophageal microbiota in EoE. The local microbiome has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several allergic and inflammatory diseases, such as asthma and eczema.

Higher exhaled nitric oxide at 6 weeks of age is associated with less bronchiolitis and wheeze in the first 12 months of age.

Background: Nitric oxide in exhaled air (eNO) is used as a marker of type 2 immune response-induced airway inflammation. We aimed to investigate the association between eNO and bronchiolitis incidence and respiratory symptoms in infancy, and its correlation with eosinophil protein X (EPX).

Methods: We followed up infants at 6 weeks of age born to mothers with asthma in pregnancy and measured eNO during natural sleep using a rapid response chemiluminescense analyser (CLD88; EcoMedics), collecting at least 100 breaths, interpolated for an expiratory flow of 50 mL/s.

Maternal asthma is associated with reduced lung function in male infants in a combined analysis of the BLT and BILD cohorts.

Rationale: Asthma in pregnancy is associated with respiratory diseases in the offspring.

Objective: To investigate if maternal asthma is associated with lung function in early life.

Methods: Data on lung function measured at 5-6 weeks of age were combined from two large birth cohorts: the Bern Infant Lung Development (BILD) and the Australian Breathing for Life Trial (BLT) birth cohorts conducted at three study sites (Bern, Switzerland; Newcastle and Sydney, Australia).

Variation of DNA Methylation in Newborns Associated with Exhaled Carbon Monoxide during Pregnancy.

Fetal exposure to tobacco smoke is an adverse risk factor for newborns. A plausible mechanism of how this exposure may negatively impact long term health is differential methylation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNAm) and its relation to birth weight. We examined whether self-reported gestational smoking status and maternal exhaled carbon monoxide (eCO) during early pregnancy were associated with methylation of cytosine by guanines (CpG) sites that themselves predicted birth weight.

Association between active tobacco use during pregnancy and infant respiratory health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: To evaluate what is known about active tobacco use during pregnancy and the association with infant respiratory health.

Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, CINAHL, and Maternity and Infant Care were searched thoroughly until June 2020.