Evaluation of the Lipid Interference for Siemens BN ProSpec Cystatin C Assay Using Pediatric Samples.

Endogenous interferents (lipids, hemoglobin and bilirubin) are a common cause of pre-analytical laboratory errors. We evaluated the effect of lipemia on Siemens cystatin C assay using pediatric samples. Lipemic samples were prepared by adding various concentrations of triglycerides into low and high cystatin C sample pools.

Incorporating longitudinal pediatric patient-centered outcome measurement into the clinical workflow using a commercial electronic health record: a step toward increasing value for the patient.

Patient-centered outcomes measurement provides healthcare organizations with crucial information for increasing value for patients; however, organizations have struggled to obtain outcomes data from electronic health record (EHR) systems. This study describes how Texas Children's Hospital customized a commercial EHR system and assembled a cross-functional team to capture outcomes data using existing functionality. Prior to its installation and customization, no surgical subspecialties besides the congenital heart and transplant surgery groups conducted prospective, patient outcomes measurement, but by 2015, the outcomes of over 1300 unique patients with supracondylar fractures, cleft lip and/or palate, or voiding dysfunction had been tracked.

DNA REPAIR. Mus81 and converging forks limit the mutagenicity of replication fork breakage.

Most spontaneous DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) result from replication-fork breakage. Break-induced replication (BIR), a genome rearrangement-prone repair mechanism that requires the Pol32/POLD3 subunit of eukaryotic DNA Polδ, was proposed to repair broken forks, but how genome destabilization is avoided was unknown. We show that broken fork repair initially uses error-prone Pol32-dependent synthesis, but that mutagenic synthesis is limited to within a few kilobases from the break by Mus81 endonuclease and a converging fork.

CNV instability associated with DNA replication dynamics: evidence for replicative mechanisms in CNV mutagenesis.

Copy number variation (CNV) in the human genome is of vital importance to human health and evolution of our species. However, much of the molecular basis of CNV mutagenesis remains to be elucidated. Considering the DNA replication model of 'fork stalling and template switching' for CNV formation, we hypothesized that replication fork progression could be important for CNV mutagenesis.

Are child anxiety and somatization associated with pain in pain-related functional gastrointestinal disorders?

This study investigated individual and incremental contributions of somatization and trait anxiety to pain report in children with pain-related functional gastrointestinal disorders. Eighty children (7-10 years) with pain-related functional gastrointestinal disorders completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, the Children's Somatization Inventory, and 2-week pain diaries (assessing pain frequency and maximum pain). Hierarchical regressions indicated that both trait anxiety and somatization were significantly related to maximum pain and pain frequency, with somatization explaining more variance.