In the News
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center provides information about these items in the news:
Asthma Study Could Lead to New Treatments
Thanks to groundbreaking work on asthma underway at Cincinnati Children's, one day children with asthma may receive treatment tailored to their unique genetic profile. In a recent study, researchers found for the first time that acute childhood asthma is caused by two distinct clusters of genes.
"Now that we know what genes are 'turned on' during an asthma attack, we will conduct studies to see if this genetic profile can be used to customize care," says Gurjit K. Khurana Hershey, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Translational Research in Asthma and Allergy at Cincinnati Children's. "The current methods of treatment primarily consist of anti-inflammatory drugs, which may not be optimal for acute attacks."
Secondhand Smoke Linked to Declines in Educational Scores
Children exposed even to extremely low levels of secondhand smoke may suffer a decline in such cognitive skills as reading, math, logic and reasoning, according to a new study at Cincinnati Children's. Researchers examined the cases of nearly 4,400 children in the largest ever such study to consider the impact of secondhand smoke on children and teens.
Motorbike Accidents Can Cause Severe Injuries
An increasing number of children and adolescents are riding dirt bikes and motorcycles. These vehicles are intended for off-road use, but a recent Cincinnati Children's study shows that children often ride them on public roads. In addition, most of the time they are not wearing helmets, leading to significantly increased severity of injury.
"Riding motorbikes is dangerous because the rider's body is fully exposed and there is very little protection during a crash," says Cincinnati Children's emergency medicine physician Wendy Pomerantz, MD. The study concludes that children should not operate motorbikes until they are old enough to obtain a driver's license and that wearing a helmet should be mandatory.
"This study provides further incentive for states to set public health standards to protect children from exposure to environmental tobacco smoke," says Kimberly Yolton, PhD, the study's main author. "We estimate that more than 33 million children in the United States are exposed to levels consistent with the adverse effects seen in this study."
