Polymorphisms affecting vitamin D-binding protein modify the relationship between serum vitamin D (25[OH]D3) and food allergy.

Background: There is evolving evidence that vitamin D insufficiency may contribute to food allergy, but findings vary between populations. Lower vitamin D-binding protein (DBP) levels increase the biological availability of serum vitamin D. Genetic polymorphisms explain almost 80% of the variation in binding protein levels.

Indeterminate Growth: Could It Represent the Ancestral Condition?

Although we are used to the idea that many organisms stop growing when they reach a predictable size, in many taxa, growth occurs throughout the life of an organism, a phenomenon referred to as indeterminate growth. Our comparative analysis suggests that indeterminate growth may indeed represent the ancestral condition, whereas the permanent arrest of growth may be a more derived state. Consistent with this idea, in diverse taxa, the basal branches show indeterminate growth, whereas more derived branches arrest their growth.

Spontaneously developed osteoarthritis in the temporomandibular joint in STR/ort mice.

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) osteoarthritis is typically a slowly progressive asymmetric disease. Little is known regarding the natural destruction of TMJ articular tissues. The aim of the present study was to investigate morphological changes in the TMJ of STR/ort mice, known to be the model for spontaneous osteoarthritis in the knee joint, and to evaluate STR/ort mice as a suitable animal model for TMJ osteoarthritis.

Health-care costs of underweight, overweight and obesity: Australian population-based study.

Aim: Child health varies with body mass index (BMI), but it is unknown by what age or how much this attracts additional population health-care costs. We aimed to determine the (1) cross-sectional relationships between BMI and costs across the first decade of life and (2) in longitudinal analyses, whether costs increase with duration of underweight or obesity.

Participants: Baby (n = 4230) and Kindergarten (n = 4543) cohorts in the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.

Assessing Patient Satisfaction in a Radiation Therapy Department Using a Survey Tool.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to use a survey tool to measure the level of patient satisfaction with current health care delivery in the radiation therapy department, and provide insight into how the department can improve quality of care.

Methods: An anonymous patient satisfaction survey was distributed to radiation therapy patients near the end of their course of treatment. The survey was distributed over a 1-month timeframe to outpatients more than 18 years of age receiving a radical course of treatment.

STAT3 the oncogene - still eluding therapy?

The STAT family of transcription factors (signal transducers and activators of transcription) transduce signals from cytokine receptors to the nucleus, where STAT dimers bind to DNA and regulate transcription. STAT3 is the most ubiquitous of the STATs, being activated by a wide variety of cytokines and growth factors. STAT3 has many roles in physiological processes such as inflammatory signalling, aerobic glycolysis and immune suppression, and was also the first family member shown to be aberrantly activated in a wide range of both solid and liquid tumours.

Trajectories and outcomes among children with special health care needs.

Background And Objective: Outcomes for children with special health care needs (SHCN) can vary by their patterns and persistence over time. We aimed to empirically establish typical SHCN trajectories throughout childhood and their predictive relationships with child and parent outcomes.

Methods: The 2 cohorts of the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children were recruited in 2004 at ages 0 to 1 (n = 5107, B cohort) and 4 to 5 years (n = 4983, K cohort).

Cohort Profile: The HealthNuts Study: Population prevalence and environmental/genetic predictors of food allergy.

HealthNuts is a single-centre, multi-wave, population-based longitudinal study designed to assess prevalence, determinants, natural history and burden of allergy (particularly food allergy) in the early years of life. It is novel in the use of serial food challenge measures within its population frame to confirm food allergy. The cohort comprises 5276 children initially recruited at age 12 months from council-run immunization sessions across Melbourne, Australia.

Viewpoint article: Childhood obesity--looking back over 50 years to begin to look forward.

The last 50 years have seen the emergence of childhood obesity as a major public health concern and a condition now regularly encountered in routine general paediatric practice. Causes are extremely complex, bringing together multifactorial environmental factors and individual genetics, and we still do not have a clear understanding of why some children appear predisposed to exaggerated and sometimes extreme weight gain. Overweight and obese children of today face an uncertain future.

Schooling duration rather than chronological age predicts working memory between 6 and 7 years: Memory Maestros Study.

Objective: Low working memory (WM) is strongly linked with poor academic outcomes. WM capacity increases across childhood but how exposure to school is associated with WM development is not known. We aimed to determine extent to which chronological age and schooling duration are associated with WM at the population level.

Poor sleep and lower working memory in grade 1 children: cross-sectional, population-based study.

Objective: Poor sleep and working memory difficulties are both associated with learning difficulties, but it is not known whether they are linked with each other in childhood. We aimed to determine, in a population-based sample of grade 1 children, whether poor sleep is associated with reduced working memory capacity.

Methods: Cross-sectional population-based study.

Differential factors associated with challenge-proven food allergy phenotypes in a population cohort of infants: a latent class analysis.

Background: Food allergy, eczema and wheeze are early manifestations of allergic disease and commonly co-occur in infancy although their interrelationship is not well understood. Data from population studies are essential to determine whether there are differential drivers of multi-allergy phenotypes. We aimed to define phenotypes and risk factors of allergic disease using latent class analysis (LCA).

Speech sound disorder at 4 years: prevalence, comorbidities, and predictors in a community cohort of children.

Aim: The epidemiology of preschool speech sound disorder is poorly understood. Our aims were to determine: the prevalence of idiopathic speech sound disorder; the comorbidity of speech sound disorder with language and pre-literacy difficulties; and the factors contributing to speech outcome at 4 years.

Method: One thousand four hundred and ninety-four participants from an Australian longitudinal cohort completed speech, language, and pre-literacy assessments at 4 years.

Medical intervention in parent-reported infant gastro-oesophageal reflux: A population-based study.

Aim: To report the cumulative incidence, health-seeking behaviour and medical intervention of infants with gastro-oesophageal reflux (GOR) in the first year of life.

Methods: The HealthNuts study is a longitudinal, population-based study. At 12 months of age, infants underwent skin prick testing to food allergens, including cows milk.

Feeding practices and child weight: is the association bidirectional in preschool children?

Background: Parental feeding practices are associated with children's body mass index (BMI). It has been generally assumed that parental feeding determines children's eating behaviors and weight gain, but feeding practices could equally be a parent's response to child weight.

Objective: In longitudinal analyses, we assessed the directionality in the relation between selected controlling feeding practices and BMI in early childhood.

Coronary steal due to ruptured right coronary aneurysm causing myocardial infarction in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus.

A 34-year-old female with a history of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) developed an acute inferior myocardial infarction while hospitalized for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus sepsis. An emergent coronary angiography revealed an ectatic proximal left coronary artery and a huge aneurysm (37 mm × 32 mm) in the mid-portion of the right coronary artery, which had ruptured into the right atrium. A "steal phenomenon" due to significant left to right shunt resulting from the ruptured aneurysm was the cause of the myocardial infarction.

A case of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy presenting with progressive right ventricular failure and recurrent multifocal monomorphic ventricular tachycardia during 15 years of follow-up.

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is a multigenic form of cardiomyopathy characterized by myocardial loss and fibrofatty replacement mainly in the right ventricle. Progressive right ventricular dysfunction, ventricular arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death are the clinical picture of this disease. Despite its clinical importance as a cause of sudden death, ARVC is likely to be under-recognized.

Maternal responsiveness predicts child language at ages 3 and 4 in a community-based sample of slow-to-talk toddlers.

Background: Maternal responsiveness has been shown to predict child language outcomes in clinical samples of children with language delay and non-representative samples of typically developing children. An effective and timely measure of maternal responsiveness for use at the population level has not yet been established.

Aims: To determine whether a global rating of maternal responsiveness at age 2 years predicts language outcomes at ages 3 and 4 in a community sample of slow-to-talk toddlers.

Environmental and genetic determinants of vitamin D insufficiency in 12-month-old infants.

We aimed to investigate the relationship between genetic and environmental exposure and vitamin D status at age one, stratified by ethnicity. This study included 563 12-month-old infants in the HealthNuts population-based study. DNA from participants' blood samples was genotyped using Sequenom MassARRAY MALDI-TOF system on 28 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in six genes.

A case of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy and acquired von Willebrand syndrome: response to medical therapy.

Heyde's syndrome is the combined occurrence of acquired von Willebrand disease caused by aortic valve stenosis and gastrointestinal bleeding that occurs particularly in elderly patients. The bleeding may be linked to the intravascular shear-induced proteolysis of high-molecular-weight multimers (HMWMs) of von Willebrand factor (vWF). Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) in the left ventricular outflow tract generates a high shear stress condition that can induce such proteolysis.

Specific language impairment: a convenient label for whom?

Background: The term 'specific language impairment' (SLI), in use since the 1980s, describes children with language impairment whose cognitive skills are within normal limits where there is no identifiable reason for the language impairment. SLI is determined by applying exclusionary criteria, so that it is defined by what it is not rather than by what it is. The recent decision to not include SLI in DSM-5 provoked much debate and concern from researchers and clinicians.