School performance for children with cleft lip and palate: a population-based study.

Background: Educational attainment is important in shaping young people's life prospects. To investigate whether being born with orofacial cleft (OFC) affects school performance, we compared school test results between children born with and without OFC.

Methods: Using record-linked datasets, we conducted a population-based cohort study of children liveborn in Western Australia 1980-2010 with a diagnosis of OFC on the Register of Developmental Anomalies, and a random sample of 6603 children born without OFC.

Status of research and development of vaccines for Streptococcus pyogenes.

Streptococcus pyogenes is an important global pathogen, causing considerable morbidity and mortality, especially in low and middle income countries where rheumatic heart disease and invasive infections are common. There is a number of promising vaccine candidates, most notably those based on the M protein, the key virulence factor for the bacterium. Vaccines against Streptococcus pyogenes are considered as impeded vaccines because of a number of crucial barriers to development.

VEGF-D promotes pulmonary oedema in hyperoxic acute lung injury.

Leakage of fluid from blood vessels, leading to oedema, is a key feature of many diseases including hyperoxic acute lung injury (HALI), which can occur when patients are ventilated with high concentrations of oxygen (hyperoxia). The molecular mechanisms driving vascular leak and oedema in HALI are poorly understood. VEGF-D is a protein that promotes blood vessel leak and oedema when overexpressed in tissues, but the role of endogenous VEGF-D in pathological oedema was unknown.

Missing voices: Profile and extent of acquired communication disorders in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adult stroke survivors in Western Australia using linked administrative records.

Background: Limited data exist on the extent of specific functional sequelae, including acquired communication disorder, among Aboriginal stroke survivors, making planning of multidisciplinary services difficult.

Aims: To obtain estimates of the extent and profile of acquired communication disorder in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adult stroke survivors in Western Australia and investigate potential disparities in receiving in-hospital speech pathology services among survivors with acquired communication disorder.

Methods: Stroke cases surviving their first stroke episode during 2002-2011 were identified using Western Australia-wide person-based linked hospital and mortality data, and their five-year comorbidity profiles determined.

Timing of routine infant vaccinations and risk of food allergy and eczema at one year of age.

Background: Epidemiological evidence suggests that routine vaccinations can have nontargeted effects on susceptibility to infections and allergic disease. Such effects may depend on age at vaccination, and a delay in pertussis vaccination has been linked to reduced risk of allergic disease. We aimed to test the hypothesis that delay in vaccines containing diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP) is associated with reduced risk of food allergy and other allergic diseases.

Progression of HPV infection to detectable cervical lesions or clearance in adult women: Analysis of the control arm of the VIVIANE study.

The control arm of the phase III VIVIANE (Human PapillomaVIrus: Vaccine Immunogenicity ANd Efficacy; NCT00294047) study in women >25 years was studied to assess risk of progression from cervical HPV infection to detectable cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). The risk of detecting CIN associated with the same HPV type as the reference infection was analysed using Kaplan-Meier and multivariable Cox models. Infections were categorised depending upon persistence as 6-month persistent infection (6MPI) or infection of any duration.

Long-term survival for infants born with orofacial clefts in Western Australia.

Background: Only two population-based studies have reported survival beyond 15 years for individuals with orofacial clefts (OFC), and only for individuals with isolated OFC. Compared with the general population, long-term survival was similar for individuals with cleft lip only, and lower for individuals with cleft palate only. Results for those born with isolated cleft lip and cleft palate were inconsistent.

Genome-wide methylation analysis identifies differentially methylated CpG loci associated with severe obesity in childhood.

Childhood obesity is a major public health issue. Here we investigated whether differential DNA methylation was associated with childhood obesity. We studied DNA methylation profiles in whole blood from 78 obese children (mean BMI Z-score: 2.

Invasive Staphylococcus aureus Infections in Children in Tropical Northern Australia.

Background: Despite a high burden of staphylococcal skin disease in children and high incidence of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia in adult Indigenous populations in northern Australia, there are few studies describing incidence or clinical information of invasive S aureus (ISA) infections in children.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review for all cases of S aureus bacteremia and sterile site infections, for children under 15 years, in northern Australia over a 4-year period (2007-2010). Cases were categorized as neonatal (<28 days) and pediatric (≥28 days).

Adverse metabolic phenotype of adolescent girls with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease plus polycystic ovary syndrome compared with other girls and boys.

Background And Aims: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) share risk associations of adiposity and insulin resistance. We examined the impact of a PCOS diagnosis on the metabolic phenotype of adolescent girls with NAFLD and compared this to girls without PCOS or NAFLD and to age-matched boys.

Methods: Community-based adolescents from the Raine Cohort participated in assessments for NAFLD (572 girls and 592 boys) and PCOS (244 girls).

Trends in maternal and newborn health characteristics and obstetric interventions among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers in Western Australia from 1986 to 2009.

Background: Detailed analyses of long-term trends in Aboriginal maternal and newborn health characteristics are lacking.

Aim: To examine trends in maternal and newborn health characteristics for all mothers who were recorded as Aboriginal in the Western Australian Midwives' Notification System from 1986 to 2009.

Materials And Methods: Births were categorised into four-year time intervals (1986-1989, 1990-1993, 1994-1997, 1998-2001, 2002-2005, 2006-2009).

Respiratory tract exacerbations revisited: ventilation, inflammation, perfusion, and structure (VIPS) monitoring to redefine treatment.

For cystic fibrosis (CF) patients older than 6 years there are convincing data that suggest respiratory tract exacerbations (RTE) play an important role in the progressive loss of functional lung tissue. There is a poor understanding of the pathobiology of RTE and whether specific treatment of RTE reduces lung damage in the long term. In addition, there are limited tools available to measure the various components of CF lung disease and responses to therapy.

Respiratory syncytial virus is present in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Nosocomial transmission of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) occurs in children within the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). During peak community RSV transmission, three swabs were collected from the nose, hand and personal clothing of visitors and health care workers (HCW) in NICU once every week for eight weeks. Nasal swabs were collected from every third neonate and from any neonate clinically suspected of having a respiratory infection.

Efficacy of fewer than three doses of an HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine: combined analysis of data from the Costa Rica Vaccine and PATRICIA Trials.

Background: There is some evidence to suggest that one or two doses of the HPV vaccine provides similar protection to the three-dose regimen. The main aim of the study was to ascertain HPV-16/18 vaccine efficacy in both full and naive cohorts and to explore protection conferred against non-vaccine HPV types, by number of doses received.

Methods: Summary data from the Costa Rica Vaccine Trial (CVT; NCT00128661) and ~the PATRICIA trial (NCT001226810), two phase 3, double-blind, randomised controlled clinical trials of the HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine in young women, were combined in a post-hoc analysis (GlaxoSmithKline [GSK] e-track number 202142) to investigate the efficacy of fewer than three doses of the HPV-16/18 vaccine after 4 years of follow-up.

National trachoma surveillance annual report, 2012.

Australia remains the only developed country to have endemic levels of trachoma (a prevalence of 5% or greater among children) in some regions. Endemic trachoma in Australia is found predominantly in remote and very remote Aboriginal communities. The Australian Government funds a National Trachoma Surveillance and Reporting Unit to collate, analyse and report trachoma prevalence data and document trachoma control strategies in Australia through an annual surveillance report.

Relationship between cytokine expression patterns and clinical outcomes: two population-based birth cohorts.

Background: Models that incorporate patterns of multiple cytokine responses to allergens, rather than individual cytokine production, may better predict sensitization and asthma.

Objective: To characterize the patterns of peripheral blood mononuclear cells' (PBMCs) cytokine responses to house dust mite (HDM) allergens among children from two population-based birth cohorts using machine learning techniques.

Methods: PBMCs collected at 8 years of age from the UK Manchester Asthma and Allergy Study (n = 268) and at 14 years of age from the Australian Raine Study (n = 1374) were cultured with HDM extract (10 μg/ml).

Impact of adolescent peer aggression on later educational and employment outcomes in an Australian cohort.

This study used prospective birth cohort data to analyse the relationship between peer aggression at 14 years of age and educational and employment outcomes at 17 years (N = 1091) and 20 years (N = 1003). Participants from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) study were divided into mutually exclusive categories of peer aggression. Involvement in peer aggression was reported by 40.

Food for thought: progress in understanding the causes and mechanisms of food allergy.

Purpose Of Review: The community burden of food allergy appears to be rising, yet the causes and mechanisms are not completely understood. The purpose of this review is to provide a snapshot of the state of play of IgE food allergies, with a focus on recent advances.

Recent Findings: There are still wide discrepancies regarding measures and definitions of food allergy.

Social inequalities in childcare quality and their effects on children's development at school entry: findings from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.

Background: Higher quality childcare in the years before school may help narrow developmental gaps between the richest and poorest children in our societies, but specific evidence is limited and inconsistent. We address this issue by examining whether higher quality childcare is associated with better developmental outcomes at school entry for children from lower than higher income families.

Methods: The sample from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children included children attending childcare from 2 to 3 years (n=980-1187, depending on outcome).

Towards a PBMC "virogram assay" for precision medicine: Concordance between ex vivo and in vivo viral infection transcriptomes.

Background: Understanding individual patient host-response to viruses is key to designing optimal personalized therapy. Unsurprisingly, in vivo human experimentation to understand individualized dynamic response of the transcriptome to viruses are rarely studied because of the obvious limitations stemming from ethical considerations of the clinical risk.

Objective: In this rhinovirus study, we first hypothesized that ex vivo human cells response to virus can serve as a proxy for otherwise controversial in vivo human experimentation.

A whole-of-population study of term and post-term gestational age at birth and children's development.

Objective: To examine the risk of poor child development according to week of gestation at birth, among children born ≥ 37 weeks' gestation.

Design: Population-based study using linked data (n = 12,601).

Setting: South Australia.

Antibody persistence in Australian adolescents following meningococcal C conjugate vaccination.

Background: In Australia, following the introduction of serogroup C meningococcal (MenC) conjugate vaccine for toddlers and catch-up immunization through adolescence, MenC disease incidence plummeted and remains low. However, individual protection following MenC conjugate vaccination, particularly in young children, may be short-lived. We investigated the persistence of MenC serum bactericidal antibody (SBA) titers in adolescents, more than 7 years after a single "catch-up" dose of MenC conjugate vaccine.

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)).