Publications by authors named "Kuitunen M"

Article Synopsis
  • - This study compares human milk antibodies to various pathogens in women from five different countries (Bangladesh, Finland, Peru, Pakistan, and the U.S.) using advanced protein microarrays, analyzing samples from 695 women.
  • - Results reveal that antibody levels, specifically IgA and IgG, vary significantly by region and are influenced by factors like maternal BMI and number of children, with the highest antibody coverage found in Bangladeshi and Pakistani mothers.
  • - The findings suggest that certain human milk antibodies may provide protective benefits against infections in infants, which could inform strategies to reduce infant illness and mortality globally.
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Background/objectives: Milk is an important source of dietary calcium and, if fortified, vitamin D. Cow's milk allergy (CMA) is treated with a milk elimination diet. Although most children become tolerant by age 3 years, some continue dairy avoidance.

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Perinatal and early-life factors reported to affect risk of allergic diseases may be mediated by changes in the gut microbiota. Here, we explored the associations between the infant gut microbiota and allergic morbidity in childhood until 13 years of age in a subgroup of the FLORA probiotic intervention cohort. A mixture of four probiotic strains with galacto-oligosaccharides was administrated to the mothers from the 36th week of the pregnancy and later to their infants until 6 months of age.

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The Cow's Milk-related Symptom Score (CoMiSS) is an awareness tool for evaluating cow's milk-related symptoms. Previous studies have focused on providing CoMiSS values for healthy and symptomatic infants aged 0-6 months. However, there is a notable gap in the literature concerning CoMiSS values for infants older than 6 months.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study evaluated whether switching from the Bristol Stool Form Scale (BSFS) to the Brussels Infants and Toddlers Stool Scale (BITSS) would alter the Cow's Milk-related Symptom Score (CoMiSS) for infants under one year old.
  • - Results showed a significant difference in overall CoMiSS scores when comparing the two scales for the entire data set, but no significant differences were found in higher-risk score subsets.
  • - The conclusion states that changing the stool assessment method does not affect the identification of potential cow's milk-related symptoms in infants, mainly impacting only those at low risk.
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Background: Urban-related nature exposures are suggested to contribute to the rising prevalence of allergic diseases despite little supporting evidence. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of 12 land cover classes and two greenness indices around homes at birth on the development of doctor-diagnosed eczema by the age of 2 years, and the influence of birth season.

Methods: Data from 5085 children were obtained from six Finnish birth cohorts.

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Aim: To investigate paediatric emergency room (ER) visits to evaluate the immediate health effects of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on children.

Methods: We retrospectively examined paediatric ER visits in the Helsinki University Hospital (HUH) district during the first wave of the pandemic (1 March to 31 May 2020), and a 2-month period immediately before and after. These periods were compared to the corresponding time periods in 2015-2019 ('reference period').

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CoMiSS® was developed 7 years ago to increase the awareness of health care professionals towards the possibility that symptoms presented by infants could be related to cow’s milk. While CoMiSS was conceived mostly on theoretical concepts, data is now available from 25 clinical trials. Based on this extensive research using the tool since 2015, we aim to propose an updated CoMiSS.

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The Cow’s Milk-related Symptom Score (CoMiSS™) was developed as a clinical tool aimed at increasing the awareness of health care professionals for the presence and intensity of clinical manifestations possibly related to cow’s milk (CM) intake. This review summarizes current evidence on CoMiSS. We found twenty-five original studies, one pooled analysis of three studies, and two reviews on CoMiSS.

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Objectives: The MOSAIC study aimed to evaluate if the Cow's Milk-related Symptom Score (CoMiSS) can be used as a stand-alone diagnostic tool for cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA).

Design: Single-blinded, prospective, multicentre diagnostic accuracy study.

Setting: 10 paediatric centres in China.

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Accumulating evidence indicates that gut microbiota may regulate sex-hormone levels in the host, with effects on reproductive health. Very little is known about the development of intestinal microbiota during puberty in humans. To assess the connection between pubertal timing and fecal microbiota, and to assess how fecal microbiota develop during puberty in comparison with adult microbiota, we utilized a Finnish allergy-prevention-trial cohort (Flora).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study evaluated how an amino acid-based formula (AAF) supports the growth of infants diagnosed with cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA).
  • Non-breastfed infants aged 0-6 months were given AAF for two weeks, followed by a food challenge to check their tolerance to cow's milk.
  • Results showed that most infants diagnosed with CMPA experienced significant catch-up growth in weight by the age of 9 months while maintaining normal growth in length and head circumference.
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Background: Children are less vulnerable to serious forms of the COVID-19 disease. However, concerns have been raised about children being the second victims of the pandemic and its control measures. Therefore, we wanted to study if the pandemic, the infection control measures and their consequences to the society projected to paediatric prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) contacts.

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We aimed to investigate the out-of-hospital mortality, and the actual prevalence of COVID-19 in children requiring paediatric emergency department (ED) care for infectious symptoms. There were four emergency medical services (EMS) responses concerning children (age 0-15 years) leading to death on-scene in 2 months during the pandemic, and eight during the previous 12 months in the Helsinki University Hospital area, although the number of EMS missions decreased by 18%. The prevalence of COVID-19 in children contacting a paediatric ED for any infectious symptoms during the epidemic peak was only 2.

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A simple derivatization technique was developed for the analysis of seven Schedule 3 chemicals and one Schedule 2 chemical listed in the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Phosgene, phosphorus oxychloride, phosphorus trichloride, phosphorus pentachloride, thionyl chloride, sulfur monochloride and sulfur dichloride (Schedule 3) as well as arsenic trichloride (Schedule 2) were derivatized using 1-propanol in 40% pyridine solution for analysis with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Derivatization temperature and concentration of the derivatization solution were optimized for maximum derivatization recovery.

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Background: The association between atopic sensitisation, atopic eczema (AE) and asthma is known, but distinct roles of allergies on long-term health are unestablished.

Objective: Evaluation of allergic symptoms and sensitisation in adolescents who in infancy had AE and verified cows' milk allergy (CMA) or AE and a negative CMA challenge, and controls.

Methods: Children with AE, with and without CMA, from a randomised controlled study in 1999-2001 examining the effect of probiotics on AE severity at older than 12 months of age, attended a follow-up visit at age 16 to 18, with age-matched controls.

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Background: Probiotics have shown promising results in primary prevention of allergies in early years, but the long-term effects on allergic sensitization need more evaluation.

Objectives: We conducted a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study to determine whether the use of a mixture of pre- and probiotics perinatally affects the prevalence of immunoglobulin E (IgE) sensitization up to 13 years in high-risk children.

Methods: One thousand two hundred twenty-three pregnant women were randomized to receiving probiotics or placebo from 36 gestational weeks until delivery, and their infants received pre- and probiotics or placebo from birth until 6 months.

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Background: The safety and efficacy of long-term milk oral immunotherapy (OIT) in Finnish children with persistent cow's milk allergy (CMA) were evaluated in an open-label, non-randomized study.

Methods: During the 11-year study, 296 children aged 5 years or older with immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated CMA started milk OIT. Follow-up data were collected at three time points: the post-buildup phase, 1 year thereafter, and at the cross-sectional long-term follow-up between January 2016 and December 2017.

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This study assesses the differences in composition of human milk oligosaccharides of mothers who received either probiotic supplements or placebos in the late stages of pregnancy.

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Background: The long-term effects of probiotic intervention for primary prevention of allergic diseases are not well known. We previously reported less eczema until 10 years in our probiotic intervention trial.

Objective: To investigate the effect of early probiotic intervention on the prevalence of allergic diseases up to 13 years of age.

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Background: Infants born by caesarean section or receiving antibiotics are at increased risk of developing metabolic, inflammatory and immunological diseases, potentially due to disruption of normal gut microbiota at a critical developmental time window. We investigated whether probiotic supplementation could ameliorate the effects of antibiotic use or caesarean birth on infant microbiota in a double blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial. Mothers were given a multispecies probiotic, consisting of Bifidobacterium breve Bb99 (Bp99 2 × 10 cfu) Propionibacterium freundenreichii subsp.

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One of the most abundant components in human milk is formed by oligosaccharides, which are poorly digested by the infant. The oligosaccharide composition of breast milk varies between mothers, and is dependent on maternal secretor (FUT2) genotype. Secretor mothers produce milk containing α1-2 fucosylated human milk oligosaccharides, which are absent in the milk of non-secretor mothers.

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The NMR-observable nuclei of the acidic and basic compounds experience pH dependence in chemical shift. This phenomenon can be exploited in NMR titrations to determine p K values of compounds, or in pH measurement of solutions using dedicated pH reference compounds. On the other hand, this sensitivity can also cause problems in, for example, metabolomics, where slight changes in pH result in significant difficulties for peak alignment between spectra of set of samples for comparative analysis.

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