Neonatal and early infancy antibiotic exposure is associated with childhood atopic dermatitis, wheeze and asthma.

Antibiotics are frequently administered in the neonatal period and early infancy. Little is known about the long-term health consequences of early life antibiotic exposure. The objective is to investigate the association between neonatal and early life (0-6 months) antibiotic treatment and the development of atopic dermatitis, asthma and the use of inhaled corticosteroid medication later in childhood.

The Role of Infant Gut Microbiota Modulation by Perinatal Maternal Probiotic Intervention in Atopic Eczema Risk Reduction.

Introduction: Probiotics have shown potential in reducing the occurrence of atopic eczema in high-risk infants. We aimed here to assess whether the preventive effect of maternal probiotic administration stems from compositional changes in early gut microbiota.

Methods: This study included 46 mother-infant pairs from an original randomized controlled trial assessing the impact of maternal probiotic intervention with either the combinations of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus LPR and Bifidobacterium longum BL999, or Lacticaseibacillus paracasei ST11 and Bifidobacterium longum BL999, or placebo beginning 2 months before expected delivery and ending 2 months after birth.

Early life exposures and development of allergic disease in infants with familial risk: Results from ongoing probiotic intervention trials.

Aim: We search revision of risk determinants of the ongoing allergy epidemic.

Methods: Children numbering 433 born to mothers with allergic disease or sensitisation were selected from the three ongoing probiotic intervention trials for this case-control study. Children who developed atopic eczema or food allergy, had positive skinprick test results or had been prescribed inhaled corticosteroids by the age of 2 years were identified as cases (n = 231), while children without allergic manifestations were the healthy controls (n = 202).

Maternal Intrapartum Antibiotic Treatment and Gut Microbiota Development in Healthy Term Infants.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of intrapartum antibiotic treatment (IAT) on the compositional development of gut microbiota in healthy term infants.

Study Design: A case-control study of 24 infants exposed to and 24 matched infants not exposed to IAT was conducted. All subjects were born by vaginal delivery at term and breastfed.

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Childhood Body Mass Index Trajectories From Birth to 7 Years of Age.

Background: The epidemic of increasing childhood overweight and obesity is a major global health concern, with local contextual factors identified as possible contributors. Robust research is needed to establish an evidence base supporting health policy decisions to reverse the trend. We aimed to examine the association between neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and trajectories of body mass index (BMI) from birth to age 7.

Neonatal antibiotic exposure impairs child growth during the first six years of life by perturbing intestinal microbial colonization.

Exposure to antibiotics in the first days of life is thought to affect various physiological aspects of neonatal development. Here, we investigate the long-term impact of antibiotic treatment in the neonatal period and early childhood on child growth in an unselected birth cohort of 12,422 children born at full term. We find significant attenuation of weight and height gain during the first 6 years of life after neonatal antibiotic exposure in boys, but not in girls, after adjusting for potential confounders.

Associations between human milk oligosaccharides and growth in infancy and early childhood.

Background: Breastfeeding modulates infant growth and protects against the development of obesity. However, whether or not maternal variation in human milk components, such as human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), is associated with programming of child growth remains unknown.

Objective: Our objective was to determine the association between maternal HMO composition and child growth during the first 5 y of life.

Antibiotics, obesity and the link to microbes - what are we doing to our children?

Background: Childhood obesity and overweight are among the greatest health challenges in the pediatric population. Obese individuals exhibit marked differences in the composition of the intestinal microbial community as compared to lean subjects. These changes in the gut microbiota precede the clinical manifestation of overweight.

Ascites in newborns - a diagnostic challenge.

Isolated fetal ascites is a rare finding in prenatal ultrasound examination. The finding is always aberrant and requires further exploration. More than half of fetal ascites findings are associated with structural anomalies.

C-11 acetate has excellent reproducibility for quantification of myocardial oxidative metabolism.

Aims: C-11 acetate PET imaging allows quantification of myocardial oxidative metabolism. We sought to assess the reproducibility of such analysis with the Carimas software.

Methods And Results: The myocardial oxygen consumption rate was assessed via a kmono index--the clearance rate constant of a mono-exponential function fitted to a C-11 acetate clearance curve.

Relationship between obstructive coronary artery disease and abnormal stress testing in patients with paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) has been linked to the presence of underlying coronary artery disease (CAD). However, whether the higher burden of CAD observed in AF patients translates into higher burden of myocardial ischemia is unknown. In 87 patients (71% male, mean age 61 ± 10 years) with paroxysmal or persistent AF and without history of CAD, MSCT coronary angiography and stress testing (exercise ECG test or myocardial perfusion imaging) were performed.

Prevalence of coronary artery disease assessed by multislice computed tomography coronary angiography in patients with paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation.

Background: Although atrial fibrillation (AF) has been linked to underlying coronary artery disease (CAD), data supporting this association have been based on ECG and clinical history for the definition of CAD rather than direct visualization of atherosclerosis.

Methods And Results: The prevalence of CAD among patients with paroxysmal or persistent AF and without history of CAD was evaluated using multislice computed tomography. Multislice computed tomography was performed in 150 patients with AF (61+/-11 years, 67% males, 58% asymptomatic) with predominantly low (59%) or intermediate (25%) pretest likelihood of CAD.