Developmental and behavioural outcomes at 2 years in babies born during the COVID-19 pandemic: communication concerns in a pandemic birth cohort.

Introduction: The CORAL (Impact of Corona Virus Pandemic on Allergic and Autoimmune Dysregulation in Infants Born During Lockdown) study reported a reduction in social communication milestones in 12-month-old infants born into the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aims: To look at 24-month developmental and behavioural outcomes in the CORAL cohort.

Design: The CORAL study is a longitudinal prospective observational study of Irish infants born in the first 3 months of the pandemic.

Evaluating 12 Years of Implementing a Multidisciplinary Specialist Child and Adolescent Obesity Treatment Service: Patient-Level Outcomes.

Introduction: Childhood obesity is a chronic disease that requires multidisciplinary and specialist intervention to address its complex pathophysiology, though access to treatment is limited globally. Evaluating the impact of evidence-based interventions implemented in real-world clinical settings is essential, in order to increase the translation of research into practice and enhance child health outcomes. In Ireland, the National Model of Care for Obesity highlighted the need to develop and improve healthcare services for children and adolescents with obesity.

Cognitive changes predict functional decline in ALS: a population-based longitudinal study.

Objective: To determine whether cognitive status in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a useful predictor of attrition and motor and cognitive decline.

Methods: Cognitive testing was undertaken in a large population-based cohort of incident ALS patients using a longitudinal, case-control study design. Normative data for neuropsychological tests were generated using age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy controls who also underwent repeated assessments.

Grey matter correlates of clinical variables in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): a neuroimaging study of ALS motor phenotype heterogeneity and cortical focality.

Background: Body region of onset and functional disability are key components of disease heterogeneity in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Objectives: To evaluate patterns of grey matter pathology in the motor cortex and correlate focal structural changes with functional disability.

Methods: We conducted a single-centre neuroimaging study of a cohort of 33 cognitively normal patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and 44 healthy controls.

Cognitive and clinical characteristics of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis carrying a C9orf72 repeat expansion: a population-based cohort study.

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease of upper and lower motor neurons, associated with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in about 14% of incident cases. We assessed the frequency of the recently identified C9orf72 repeat expansion in familial and apparently sporadic cases of ALS and characterised the cognitive and clinical phenotype of patients with this expansion.

Methods: A population-based register of patients with ALS has been in operation in Ireland since 1995, and an associated DNA bank has been in place since 1999.

The syndrome of cognitive impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a population-based study.

Background: Despite considerable interest, the population-based frequency, clinical characteristics and natural history of cognitive impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are not known.

Methodology: The authors undertook a prospective population-based study of cognitive function in 160 incident Irish ALS patients and 110 matched controls. Home-based visits were conducted to collect demographic and neuropsychological data.