Early high risk of cerebral palsy classification is predictive of cerebral palsy at 2 years: an implementation cohort study.

Objective: To determine the predictive accuracy of an early high risk of cerebral palsy (CP) classification for CP diagnosed by 2 years' corrected age within an implementation study of international clinical CP guidelines.

Design: Implementation cohort study.

Setting: Eleven Australian neonatal intensive care units.

Towards universal early screening for cerebral palsy: a roadmap for automated General Movements Assessment.

Unlabelled: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common lifelong physical disability, affecting millions globally. Early detection and intervention are crucial for improving outcomes, yet many children are diagnosed late. The General Movements Assessment (GMA) is a highly accurate clinical tool for detecting infants at high probability of CP, but access to health professionals trained in the GMA limits its use.

Practice variation in the use of steroid-sparing therapies in childhood steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome: results from a prospective cohort study.

Background: Steroid-sparing therapies are often used to prolong disease remission while minimizing steroid toxicity in childhood steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome (SSNS). This study aims to describe practice variation in the use of steroid-sparing medications for childhood SSNS in Canada.

Methods: Children (1-18 years) with nephrotic syndrome (NS) from eleven pediatric nephrology centers in Canada were enrolled in the Canadian Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome (CHILDNEPH) prospective cohort from 2013-2019.

Implementation Fidelity of a Smartphone Application for Population-Based General Movement Assessment: The Early Moves Study.

Objective: To describe the infant and maternal characteristics of the Early Moves cohort and to assess representativeness to the general population, and to evaluate the implementation fidelity of an application-based collection of General Movement Assessment (GMA) videos at writhing and fidgety age.

Study Design: Prospective observational study. Mothers who had recently delivered or were enrolled to deliver at maternity hospitals in Perth, Western Australia, were recruited from November 2019 to December 2023.

Your turn: At home turning angle estimation for Parkinson's disease severity assessment.

People with Parkinson's Disease (PD) often experience progressively worsening gait, including changes in how they turn around, as the disease progresses. Existing clinical rating tools are not capable of capturing hour-by-hour variations of PD symptoms, as they are confined to brief assessments within clinic settings, leaving gait performance outside these controlled environments unaccounted for. Measuring turning angles continuously and passively is a component step towards using gait characteristics as sensitive indicators of disease progression in PD.

Ambulant children with cerebral palsy have similar leg muscle moment arms to typically developing children.

Many children with cerebral palsy (CP) have muscle contractures and bony deformities. It has been hypothesised that these musculoskeletal abnormalities could increase or decrease muscle moment arms and cause movement dysfunction. In this study, we first investigated the relationship between skeletal growth (tibia length) and three-dimensional measurements of Achilles tendon and tibialis anterior moment arms from magnetic resonance images of 200 typically developing children aged 5 to 15 years.

Global prevalence of chronic kidney disease and associated risk factors in children and adolescents: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: While chronic kidney disease (CKD) is well characterised in adults, less is known about the prevalence of CKD in children and adolescents, where it is rare and associated with unique characteristics and implications for long-term health outcomes. This study protocol outlines a systematic review to assess the global prevalence of CKD in children and adolescents along with causes and associated risk factors. This is warranted to better characterise prevalence and to identify at-risk groups that would benefit from screening efforts.

Punctate White Matter Abnormality in Moderate-to-Late Preterm Infants.

Objective: Moderate-to-late preterm (MLP) infants contribute to the greatest proportion of preterm children with neurodevelopmental impairments. White matter injury (WMI) is common and predicts adverse outcomes in very preterm (VP) infants. However, little is known about white matter abnormality (WMA) in MLP infants.

A Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial of Hand Arm Bimanual Intensive Training Including Lower Extremity for Children with Bilateral Cerebral Palsy.

Objective: To test the efficacy of Hand Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremity (HABIT-ILE) to improve gross motor function, manual ability, goal performance, walking endurance, mobility, and self-care for children with bilateral cerebral palsy.

Study Design: This prospective, waitlist randomized controlled trial included children with bilateral cerebral palsy, aged 6-to-16-years and classified Gross Motor Function Classification System levels II to IV. HABIT-ILE delivered for 2 weeks (65 hours) was compared with usual care.

The diagnostic accuracy of CTseg segmentation software for dementia in a New Zealand memory service.

This study examines the accuracy of CTseg segmentation software to diagnose Alzheimer's disease dementia and other dementias using routine CT scans from a New Zealand memory service. Analyzing 168 scans (89 with dementia and 79 without dementia) the software segmented the brain to produce total brain volume and hippocampal volume. CTseg-derived total brain volume (sensitivity 72%, specificity 58%) and hippocampal volume (sensitivity 71%, specificity 62%) were reasonably effective at differentiating dementia from non-dementia at time of diagnosis.

Mapping Neuroinflammation With Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Randomized Crossover Study.

Background: The pathophysiology of neuroinflammation in psychiatric conditions remains poorly understood, highlighting the need for noninvasive tools that can measure neuroinflammation in vivo. We explored advanced diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques for detection of low-level neuroinflammation induced by typhoid vaccine, with potential applications to psychiatric disorders.

Methods: Twenty healthy volunteers (10 males; median age 34, range 18-44 years) participated in a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover design study.

Growth after pediatric and neonatal acute kidney injury: a meta-analysis.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs commonly in critically ill children. The impact of AKI on pediatric growth outcomes has been sparsely described.

Objective: To compare growth in children with a history of AKI compared to those without AKI.

Thrombocytopenia in Children and Young Adults Undergoing Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy: A WE-ROCK Study.

Introduction: Thrombocytopenia in patients treated with continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) in adults is associated with mortality. Pediatric data are limited. The association between pre-CRRT thrombocytopenia and platelet decline at 24 h of CRRT with outcomes was evaluated.

Childhood muscle growth: Reference curves for lower leg muscle volumes and their clinical application in cerebral palsy.

Skeletal muscles grow substantially during childhood. However, quantitative information about the size of typically developing children's muscles is sparse. Here, the objective was to construct muscle-specific reference curves for lower leg muscle volumes in children aged 5 to 15 y.

Mild traumatic brain injury increases cortical iron: evidence from individual susceptibility mapping.

Quantitative susceptibility mapping has been applied to map brain iron distribution after mild traumatic brain injury to understand properties of neural tissue which may be related to cellular dyshomeostasis. However, this is a heterogeneous injury associated with microstructural brain changes, and 'traditional' group-wise statistical approaches may lead to a loss of clinically relevant information, as subtle alterations at the individual level can be obscured by averages and confounded by within-group variability. More precise and individualized approaches are needed to characterize mild traumatic brain injury better and elucidate potential cellular mechanisms to improve intervention and rehabilitation.

Characterizing positive and negative quantitative susceptibility values in the cortex following mild traumatic brain injury: a depth- and curvature-based study.

Evidence has linked head trauma to increased risk factors for neuropathology, including mechanical deformation of the sulcal fundus and, later, perivascular accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau adjacent to these spaces related to chronic traumatic encephalopathy. However, little is known about microstructural abnormalities and cellular dyshomeostasis in acute mild traumatic brain injury in humans, particularly in the cortex. To address this gap, we designed the first architectonically motivated quantitative susceptibility mapping study to assess regional patterns of net positive (iron-related) and net negative (myelin-, calcium-, and protein-related) magnetic susceptibility across 34 cortical regions of interest following mild traumatic brain injury.

The predictive validity of HINE, Bayley, general movements and MOS-R in infancy.

Introduction: Infants born with congenital anomalies requiring surgery are at greater risk of developmental delays. Early screening tools are needed to identify infants who would benefit from early intervention. This study aimed to investigate the concurrent predictive validity of the General Movements Assessment (GMA), Motor Optimality Score - Revised (MOS-R), Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination (HINE) and Bayley-III in identifying infants at risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Neurotrophic factors for Parkinson's disease: Current status, progress, and remaining questions. Conclusions from a 2023 workshop.

In 2023, a workshop was organized by the UK charity Cure Parkinson's with The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and Parkinson's UK to review the field of growth factors (GFs) for Parkinson's disease (PD). This was a follow up to a previous meeting held in 2019. This 2023 workshop reviewed new relevant data that has emerged in the intervening 4 years around the development of new GFs and better models for studying them including the merit of combining treatments as well as therapies that can be modulated.

The role of diagnostic modalities in differentiating hypertensive heart disease and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: strategies in adults for potential application in paediatrics.

Hypertensive heart disease and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy both lead to left ventricular hypertrophy despite differing in aetiology. Elucidating the correct aetiology of the presenting hypertrophy can be a challenge for clinicians, especially in patients with overlapping risk factors. Furthermore, drugs typically used to combat hypertensive heart disease may be contraindicated for the treatment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, making the correct diagnosis imperative.

Economic burden of acute kidney injury in children and adults: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in hospitalised adults and children and is associated with significantly increased mortality and worse short-term and long-term outcomes. This systematic review and meta-analysis will evaluate the cost associated with AKI.

Methods And Analysis: This health economic analysis will be performed using systematic search of databases, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus and Cochrane Library from 2009 to the present (search completed on 27 May 2024).

Parents' experiences of early screening for cerebral palsy: A qualitative reflexive thematic analysis.

Aim: To explore parents' experiences of early screening for cerebral palsy (CP) in three Australian states.

Method: This is a qualitative description study using semi-structured interviews. Participants were parents of children who had CP (n = 5), or high risk of CP (n = 10), or no CP (n = 11) at 2 years, and had completed early screening for CP.

Kidney and blood pressure outcomes 11 years after pediatric critical illness and longitudinal impact of AKI: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in critically ill children and associated with adverse short-term outcomes; however, long-term outcomes are not well described.

Methods: This longitudinal prospective cohort study examined the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and hypertension (HTN) 11 vs. 6 years after pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission and association with AKI.

Fine-Grained Fidgety Movement Classification Using Active Learning.

Typically developing infants, between the corrected age of 9-20 weeks, produce fidgety movements. These movements can be identified with the General Movement Assessment, but their identification requires trained professionals to conduct the assessment from video recordings. Since trained professionals are expensive and their demand may be higher than their availability, computer vision-based solutions have been developed to assist practitioners.

Measurement of blood-brain barrier water exchange rate using diffusion-prepared and multi-echo arterial spin labelling: Comparison of quantitative values and age dependence.

Water exchange rate (Kw) across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is an important physiological parameter that may provide new insight into ageing and neurodegenerative disease. Recently, two non-invasive arterial spin labelling (ASL) MRI methods have been developed to measure Kw, but results from the different methods have not been directly compared. Furthermore, the association of Kw with age for each method has not been investigated in a single cohort.