Impact of rotavirus vaccination on intussusception hospital admissions in England.

Background: An increased risk of intussusception has been reported following rotavirus vaccination. We sought to determine whether introduction of rotavirus vaccination in England in July 2013 was associated with a change in the burden of total and age group-specific childhood hospital admissions for intussusception.

Methods: We identified all children aged 0-36 months admitted to hospitals in England with intussusception using the Hospital Episode Statistics dataset.

Comparing the usability of paediatric weight estimation methods: a simulation study.

Objective: Estimating weight is essential in order to prepare appropriate sized equipment and doses of resuscitation drugs in cases where children are critically ill or injured. Many methods exist with varying degrees of complexity and accuracy. The most recent version of the Advanced Paediatric Life Support (APLS) course has changed their teaching from an age-based calculation method to the use of a reference table.

A Service evaluation of a hospital child death review process to elucidate understanding of contributory factors to child mortality and inform practice in the English National Health Service.

Objective: To describe a novel approach to hospital mortality meetings to elucidate understanding of contributory factors to child death and inform practice in the National Health Service.

Design: All child deaths were separately reviewed at a meeting attended by professionals across the healthcare pathway, and an assessment was made of contributory factors to death across domains intrinsic to the child, family and environment, parenting capacity and service delivery. Data were analysed from a centrally held database of records.

The promise of immunisation against rotavirus.

Infectious diarrhoea is a common disease of childhood. It is estimated to be responsible for over 1.3 million deaths per year, predominantly in resource-poor countries.

Functional distinctions in cytosolic calcium regulation between cells of the glomerular filtration barrier.

The importance of intracellular calcium ([Ca(2+)]i) regulation in the glomerular filtration barrier (GFB) has recently been highlighted by mutations in the cation channel TRPC6, resulting in a renal-specific phenotype. We examined the effects of FFA, a tool that can activate TRPC6, on [Ca(2+)]i in human conditionally immortalised glomerular endothelial cells (ciGEnC) and human podocytes (ciPod) that form the GFB. Changes in [Ca(2+)]i stimulated by FFA were measured in Fura 2-AM loaded cells.