Publications by authors named "Vajro P"

Article Synopsis
  • The term non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has faced criticism for its use in both children and adults, leading to the introduction of metabolic (dysfunction)-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), which better reflects the condition's complexities.
  • The rise of MAFLD parallels increasing obesity rates and positions it as a leading cause of chronic liver disease, especially among children, while recognizing the potential for additional metabolic disorders.
  • Despite progress in understanding MAFLD's multifactorial causes, limitations in non-invasive diagnostic methods remain, with dietary and lifestyle changes being key to management, supplemented by ongoing exploration of new treatments.
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Information obtained from children themselves regarding the characteristics of the ideal hospital that ensure well-being during a hospital stay is scarce. Here, we report the opinions, perceptions, and expectations of 700 children and adolescents about their experiences, assessed through a mixed-method research approach with age-appropriate questionnaires, three open-ended questions, and an analysis of optional pictorial and textual narratives. Most children indicated that, while they acknowledged the expertise of hospital staff, they also noted several shortcomings, e.

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Pediatric acute liver failure (PALF) has recently become a subject of great interest when multiple clusters of non-A to non-E severe acute hepatitis in otherwise healthy young children with a median age of 2 years were reported around the world [...

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictions have been correlated with vitamin D deficiency in children, but some uncertainties remain. We retrospectively studied vitamin 25-(OH) D blood levels in 2182 Italian children/adolescents hospitalized for various chronic diseases in the year before (n = 1052) and after (n = 1130) the nationwide lockdown. The type of underlying disease, gender, and mean age (91 ± 55 and 91 ± 61 months, respectively) of patients included in the two periods were comparable.

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Purpose: Lifestyle/dietetic habits play an important role in the development and progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) disease. Here, we examine the basic pathomechanisms underlying intestinal and brain barrier modifications in MS and consider diets and dietary supplementations proposed over time to complement pharmacological therapies for improving disease outcome both in adults and in children.

Methods: Scoping literature search about evidence-based findings in MS-related gut-brain axis (GBA) pathophysiology and nutritional issues at all ages.

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Odevixibat, an ileal bile acid transporter (IBAT) inhibitor, is effective for the treatment of pruritus in children diagnosed with progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) type 1 and 2. There are no studies showing the efficacy of Odevixibat in children with different subtypes of PFIC. We describe the case of a 6-year-old girl with chronic cholestatic jaundice.

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Monkeypox disease has been endemic in sub-Saharan Africa for decades, attracting remarkable attention only i23n 2022 through the occurrence of a multi-country outbreak. The latter has raised serious public health concerns and is considered a public health emergency by the World Health Organization. Although the disease is usually self-limiting, it can cause severe illness in individuals with compromised immune systems, in children, and/or the pregnant woman-fetus dyad.

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Sedentary lifestyle and consumption of high-calorie foods have caused a relentless increase of overweight and obesity prevalence at all ages. Its presently epidemic proportion is disquieting due to the tight relationship of obesity with metabolic syndrome and several other comorbidities which do call for urgent workarounds. The usual ineffectiveness of present therapies and failure of prevention campaigns triggered overtime a number of research studies which have unveiled some relevant aspects of obesity genetic and epigenetic inheritable profiles.

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Childhood obesity and its associated comorbidities are highly prevalent diseases that may add to any other possible health problem commonly affecting the pediatric age. Uncertainties may arise concerning drug dosing when children with obesity need pharmacologic therapies. In general, in pediatric practice, there is a tendency to adapt drug doses to a child's total body weight.

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Background: Lipoprotein X (LpX) - mediated extremely severe hyperlipidemia is a possible feature detectable in children with syndromic paucity of intralobular bile ducts (Alagille syndrome) but rarely in other types of intra- and/or extrahepatic infantile cholestasis.

Case Presentation: Here we report on a previously well 18-month child admitted for cholestatic jaundice and moderate hepatomegaly. Laboratory tests at entry showed conjugated hyperbilirubinemia, elevated values of serum aminotransferases, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) and bile acids (100 folds upper normal values).

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Article Synopsis
  • * A group of experts worked together to gather information on how to diagnose NIC by studying different sources and using a special scoring system to rate the evidence.
  • * Their recommendations on how to best diagnose NIC in babies were approved by a majority of the experts and put together in a final document.
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