Advocacy at the Eighth World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery.

The (WCPCCS) will be held in Washington DC, USA, from Saturday, 26 August, 2023 to Friday, 1 September, 2023, inclusive. The will be the largest and most comprehensive scientific meeting dedicated to paediatric and congenital cardiac care ever held. At the time of the writing of this manuscript, has 5,037 registered attendees (and rising) from 117 countries, a truly diverse and international faculty of over 925 individuals from 89 countries, over 2,000 individual abstracts and poster presenters from 101 countries, and a Best Abstract Competition featuring 153 oral abstracts from 34 countries.

ONC201 in combination with paxalisib for the treatment of H3K27-altered diffuse midline glioma.

Diffuse midline gliomas (DMG), including diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs), are the most lethal of childhood cancers. Palliative radiotherapy is the only established treatment, with median patient survival of 9-11 months. ONC201 is a DRD2 antagonist and ClpP agonist that has shown preclinical and emerging clinical efficacy in DMG.

Low birthweight newborns in Vanuatu: A longitudinal follow-up study.

Aim: Medical care and technology have increased the survival of low birthweight babies (LBW), but especially in low- and middle-income settings the longer term thriving of such babies is not assured because of their fragility, limited services and difficult access after discharge from hospital. In Vanuatu, a Pacific nation of dispersed islands, improving LBW outcomes and survival remains a significant challenge. In this study, we prospectively document the survival, developmental and nutritional outcomes of a cohort of LBW over the first year of life.

Growth parameters in children with achondroplasia: A 7-year, prospective, multinational, observational study.

Purpose: This study was undertaken to collect baseline growth parameters in children with achondroplasia who might enroll in interventional trials of vosoritide, and to establish a historical control.

Methods: In this prospective, observational study, participants (≤17 years) underwent a detailed medical history and physical examination and were followed every 3 months until they finished participating in the study by enrolling in an interventional trial or withdrawing.

Results: A total of 363 children were enrolled (28 centers, 8 countries).

Developmental relationships between socio-economic disadvantage and mental health across the first 30 years of life.

Understanding of how socio-economic disadvantage experienced over the life course relates to mental health outcomes in young adulthood has been limited by a lack of long-term, prospective studies. Here we address this limitation by drawing on data from a large Australian population cohort study that has followed the development of more than 2,000 Australians (and their families) from infancy to young adulthood since 1983. Associations were examined between prospective assessments of socio-economic position (SEP) from 4-8 months to 27-28 years and mental health problems (depression, anxiety, stress) and competence (civic engagement, emotional maturity, secure intimate relationship) at 27-28 years.

Telling the truth to seriously ill children: Considering children's interests when parents veto telling the truth.

How should clinicians respond when parents will not allow their child to know the truth about their medical condition and treatment? There is wide consensus amongst clinicians and ethicists that children should be given "honest" information delivered in a developmentally appropriate manner. However, the basis in ethical theory is not clear, especially for pre-adolescents. These children are old enough to understand some information, but are not yet "mature minors" capable of making their own health care decisions.

Fatty liver index predicts incident risk of prediabetes, type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Aims: To investigate the association between overweight/obesity and fatty liver index (FLI) on the odds of incident prediabetes/type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in 2020 participants after 10 years follow up.

Methods: At baseline (in 2001) 2020 participants, males and females, aged 24-39 years, were stratified according to body mass index (BMI), normal weight (<25 kg/m), overweight (≥25-<30 kg/m), or obese (≥30 kg/m) and FLI (as high FLI ≥60 or low FLI <60). We examined the incidence of prediabetes/type 2 diabetes and NAFLD (ultrasound assessed) over 10 years to 2011 to determine the relative impact of FLI and BMI.

Sudden Death in the Young: Information for the Primary Care Provider.

There are multiple conditions that can make children prone to having a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) or sudden cardiac death (SCD). Efforts have been made by multiple organizations to screen children for cardiac conditions, but the emphasis has been on screening before athletic competition. This article is an update of the previous American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement of 2012 that addresses prevention of SCA and SCD.

The threat of the COVID-19 pandemic on reversing global life-saving gains in the survival of childhood cancer: a call for collaborative action from SIOP, IPSO, PROS, WCC, CCI, St Jude Global, UICC and WHPCA.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses an unprecedented health crisis in all socio-economic regions across the globe. While the pandemic has had a profound impact on access to and delivery of health care by all services, it has been particularly disruptive for the care of patients with life-threatening noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as the treatment of children and young people with cancer. The reduction in child mortality from preventable causes over the last 50 years has seen childhood cancer emerge as a major unmet health care need.

Fragile Females: Case Series of Epilepsy in Girls With Disruption.

Girls with pathogenic variants in , the gene responsible for Fragile X syndrome, have received relatively little attention in the literature. The reports of girls with trinucleotide expansions or deletions affecting describe variable phenotypes; having normal intelligence and no severe neurologic sequelae is not uncommon. We reviewed epilepsy genetics research databases for girls with pathogenic variants and seizures to characterize the spectrum of epilepsy phenotypes.

Longitudinal analysis of risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in adulthood.

Background & Aims: We aimed to determine how childhood body mass index and metabolic health, along with the change in body mass index between childhood and adulthood, determine the risk of adult non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Methods: Data from 2020 participants aged 3-18 years at baseline, followed up 31 years later, were examined to assess the utility of four childhood metabolic phenotypes (Metabolic Groups I: normal body mass index, no metabolic disturbances; II: normal body mass index, one or more metabolic disturbances; III: overweight/obese, no metabolic disturbances; IV: overweight/obese, one or more metabolic disturbances) and four life-course adiposity phenotypes (Adiposity Group 1: normal child and adult body mass index; 2, high child, normal adult body mass index; 3, normal child body mass index, high adult body mass index; 4, high child and adult body mass index) in predicting adult non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Results: The risk for adult non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was similar across all four groups after adjustment for age, sex, lifestyle factors and adult body mass index.

Childhood Respiratory Risk Factor Profiles and Middle-Age Lung Function: A Prospective Cohort Study from the First to Sixth Decade.

Rationale: Childhood risk factors for long-term lung health often coexist and their specific patterns may affect subsequent lung function differently.

Objectives: To identify childhood risk factor profiles and their influence on lung function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in middle age, and potential pathways.

Methods: Profiles of 11 childhood respiratory risk factors, documented at age 7, were identified in 8,352 participants from the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study using latent class analysis.

Childhood predictors of lung function trajectories and future COPD risk: a prospective cohort study from the first to the sixth decade of life.

Background: Lifetime lung function is related to quality of life and longevity. Over the lifespan, individuals follow different lung function trajectories. Identification of these trajectories, their determinants, and outcomes is important, but no study has done this beyond the fourth decade.

Impact of Lipid Measurements in Youth in Addition to Conventional Clinic-Based Risk Factors on Predicting Preclinical Atherosclerosis in Adulthood: International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort Consortium.

Background: Data suggest that the prediction of adult cardiovascular disease using a model comprised entirely of adult nonlaboratory-based risk factors is equivalent to an approach that additionally incorporates adult lipid measures. We assessed and compared the utility of a risk model based solely on nonlaboratory risk factors in adolescence versus a lipid model based on nonlaboratory risk factors plus lipids for predicting high-risk carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) in adulthood.

Methods: The study comprised 2893 participants 12 to 18 years of age from 4 longitudinal cohort studies from the United States (Bogalusa Heart Study and the Insulin Study), Australia (Childhood Determinants of Adult Health Study), and Finland (The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study) and followed into adulthood when cIMT was measured (mean follow-up, 23.

Anogenital Distance in Term Newborns in Kumasi, Ghana.

Background: Anogenital distance (AGD) is a simple noninvasive measure of foetal androgen exposure. This study was done to generate normative data on AGD in Ghanaian newborns.

Methods: AGD was measured in 644 male and 612 female term newborns; including the distance between the anterior base of the penis and the centre of the anus, the posterior base of the penis and the centre of the anus, and the posterior base of the scrotum and the centre of the anus (ASD) in males and the distance from the anus to the fourchette (AF) and from the anus to the base of the clitoris in females.

Repeated Blood Pressure Measurements in Childhood in Prediction of Hypertension in Adulthood.

Hypertension may be predicted from childhood risk factors. Repeated observations of abnormal blood pressure in childhood may enhance prediction of hypertension and subclinical atherosclerosis in adulthood compared with a single observation. Participants (1927, 54% women) from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study had systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurements performed when aged 3 to 24 years.

Development of hypertension in overweight adolescents: a review.

The upward trend in adolescent hypertension is widely attributed to the adolescent obesity epidemic. Secular trends in adolescent prehypertension and hypertension have risen in congruence with increasing trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity. The correlation between body mass index and blood pressure in adolescence is moderate to strong in most studies and strongest in those classified as overweight or obese.

Does youth adiposity, or change in adiposity from youth to adulthood, predict metabolically healthy obesity in adulthood?

Background: Individuals with metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) do not have the metabolic complications usually associated with obesity.

Objective: To examine whether youth adiposity, or change in adiposity from youth to adulthood, predicts MHO 20 years later.

Methods: A national sample of 2410 Australian participants had height, weight and waist circumference (WC) measured in 1985 (7-15 years old) and 2004-2006 (26-36 years old).

Childhood obesity: Current and novel approaches.

The prevalence of childhood obesity has increased over the last fifty years by approximately 5% per decade, and approximately a quarter of all children are now either overweight or obese. These children have a significantly increased risk of many future health problems including adult obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Despite this relentless increase, common-sense approaches aimed at prevention and treatment have failed to solve the problem.

Lifetime measures of ideal cardiovascular health and their association with subclinical atherosclerosis: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

Background: The American Heart Association recently defined 7 ideal health behaviors and factors that can be used to monitor ideal cardiovascular health (ICH) over time. These relate to smoking, physical activity, diet, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, blood glucose and total cholesterol. Associations between repeated measures of ICH across the life-course with outcomes of subclinical atherosclerosis in adult life have not been reported.