February 22, 2010
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 5:39 am
Advances in laparoscopic surgery that allows surgeons to repair birth defects while the baby is still in the womb, scientists may also be able to deliver DNA and cells in the future to treat devastating genetic diseases such as sickle cell anaemia before the child is born.
This new field is called foetal surgery and is a growing part of material medicine according to paediatric surgeon Scott Adzick from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who is the medical director of the centre for Foetal Diagnosis and Treatment and also the surgeon in chief.
Adzick continued to state that the ability to detect birth defects before birth has let physicians offer extra prenatal care but due to the fact that many babies are too ill to be treated after they leave the womb scientists were forced to develop the field of foetal surgery.
He also stated that a large majority of the anomalies that are treated at the Children’s Hospital are rare and only seen once or twice a year, but with the advancement of the field it is possible that a wider group of conditions may be possible to treat before birth, benefiting many children.
In the future Adzick hopes to see advances in gene therapy, high tech procedures, innovative surgeries, and stem cell treatments that can all lead to new advances in the current standards of foetal therapy.
Open foetal surgery is the process of opening the abdomen of the mother along with the uterus that the foetus can be operated on. Two common forms of the surgery target babies that have lung mass defects and compression on the heart that can prevent the heart from developing.
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 5:32 am
Some of the worst genetic diseases are starting to decline in the general population with a few almost disappearing completely due to the fact that genetic testing is becoming more popular before deciding if children are a good choice for couples.
In particular, Tay-Sachs, cystic fibrosis, and other odd disorders have decreased in number due to the increase of wider testing use. Clinical genetics chief of Columbia University, Dr. Wendy Chung, said that carrier screening has drastically reduced the presence of genetic disorders.
Chung stated that in the last five years she has only come across one case of Tay-Sachs, which is a neurological disease that forces children to lose their physical and mental abilities causing premature death to occur at the age of four.
Now most women’s routine prenatal care includes genetic testing causing many woman to terminate pregnancies when they find out the child is a carrier of one of these devastating diseases. In fact, a California study showed that the result of pre-natal screening is half as many babies are born with cystic fibrosis due to the fact that woman now choose abortion when it is diagnosed.
Embryo screening is also growing in popularity resulting in parents and fertility doctors carefully choosing embryos that do not carry any genes that are mutated and could possibly cause problems in children after birth.
Since 2006 embryo screening is on the rise over the last few years and becoming a common part of IVF according to reports from the Society for Associated Reproductive Techonology.
February 12, 2010
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 3:52 am
The causes and contributing factors of the neural disorder now known as autism are still largely unknown, but a great deal of research is being carried out on many fronts. A recent study undertaken by researchers at the University of California found a correlation between the age of women giving birth and the incidence of autism in babies.
The findings, published in the medical journal Autism Research, prompted the conclusion that women over 40 are at much greater risk than those in their 20’s of having a baby with autistic symptoms.
The study involved following the medical history of almost five million children over a period of ten years from the date of birth, in this case the records of every birth in California from January 1990 to December 1999.
To identify cases of autism, the researchers used medical examinations called ESR or Early Start Report for children less than three years old, and CDER, or Client Development and Evaluation Report for ages three and over.
Within the entire group, specific data was recorded to establish the age, race and educational level of the parents as well as other factors such as the number of previous pregnancies and births and the type of insurance owned by the parents.
After the exclusion of children from multiple births and those with insufficient parental data, the study found 12,159 diagnosed cases of autism among the 4,935,776 children in the control group.
February 11, 2010
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 5:41 am
When four year old Bella Flint said that she felt ill a GP stated that a child was simply looking for attention after her baby sister arrived, however, her mother thought there was more to it than that, luckily for Bella.
Her mother, Carly Hornbuckle, said that her mother’s intuition drove her to head online to diagnose her symptoms because she had a feeling that the illness was more than just a childhood bug or the result of sibling rivalry.
Hornbuckle actions ended up saving her life because when she looked up Bella’s symptoms that included vomiting in the morning, weight loss, and listlessness she discovered that they were all signs of a brain tumour.
Once she discovered the diagnosis, she ran to another GP who agreed to test Bella, at which point it was discovered there was a tumour about the size of a golf ball in her brain.
It took an eight hour operation and Bella is now receiving chemotherapy for the next year, but the prognosis is positive.
Hornbuckle stated that she knew something was wrong because a mother knows her child.
Bella’s parents became concerned in France while on holiday when the child started vomiting after waking up. They noticed she was losing weight but the GP said that the child seemed to well overall for something serious to be wrong with her.
The tumour was finally found at the Leicester Royal Infirmary and diagnosed as medulloblastoma, which only affects about 80 children across the nation.
December 7, 2009
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 3:21 am
Scientists are a step closer to understanding how and why a blood vessel in the foetus can fail to close shortly after its birth.
The blood vessel is known as the ductus arteriosus and its failure causes heart failure and high blood pressure within the lungs. The area is also responsible for the blood forming clots.
The study was published in the journal of Nature Medicine by a German team of researchers working at the Technischen University in Munich.
The vessel in question is small in size but is responsible for connecting the aorta and the pulmonary artery effectively allowing the blood from the right portion of the heart to pass by the lungs. This allows the left side of the heart to get the blood it needs and the lungs relief.
However, the vessel is supposed to close just a few hours after birth once its work is done, but in some babies this does not happen causing a medical condition referred to as patient ductus arteriosus.
When not promptly corrected, it can lead to dizziness and shortness of breath due to pressure that builds up in the lung blood vessels. Over time, left untreated, the condition leads to congestive heart failure and irregular heart rhythms.
The condition was found to occur more commonly in babies that were born with a low birth weight prematurely and in those that did not have a high amount of blood platelets.
The scientists speculate in their research that a transfusion after birth may prevent the condition.
November 24, 2009
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 9:01 am
A leading scientist is expected to claim this week that breast milk is vital for infant development as well as for its nutritional advantages which are already accepted among the medical community. The new research discovered that there are possibly three different kinds of stem cells found in breast milk.
Medical director at the Swiss baby equipment company Medela, Dr. Mark Cregan believes that the presence of stem cells in breast milk helps a child reach its genetic potential better since the milk comes from the mother’s mammary glands.
Dr. Cregan stated that breast milk is the only tissue from the mother in which more than one kind of stem cell has been found which is unique and implies that breast milk has an impressive bioactivity.
His research was able to isolate stem cells that originate from the mammary glands and immune system which shows based on preliminary evidence that stem cells will help a baby grow its bone and muscle tissue.
Scientists plan to use the discovery to harvest the stem cells from breast milk to determine why some mothers are unable to produce their own breast milk and to test out new drugs that may aid them.
Advocates are hopeful that the presence of stem cells in breast milk will help increase the current UK breastfeeding rates which show that only about 33% of babies are breastfed exclusively at one week of age with the number decreasing to 20% at six weeks of age.
November 17, 2009
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 7:44 am
A surprising study from New Zealand found that babies who are born after their mothers are exposed to their father’s semen for an extended amount of time benefit in the long run.
The study found that women who have a longer sexual history with their partner versus those who have short term sexual relations and then get pregnant, have a reduced chance of pre-eclampsia as well low birth weight babies.
The study was conducted by doctors at the University of Auckland and included 2507 women who were pregnant for the first time. Each of the women was asked how long they had been in an intimate relationship with the father of their babies.
As the pregnancies of the women came to term it was found that women who had long term sexual relationships exclusively with their partner were less likely to suffer from pregnancy induced hypertension also known as pre-eclampsia.
On the other hand, women who were in shorter relationships before becoming pregnant were much more likely to have smaller undeveloped children during their 20 week ultrasounds which showed the foetus had reduced blood flow to it.
One of the reviewers of the study, Dr. Larry Chamley, stated that during pregnancy longer exposure of a woman’s immune system to the male’s antigens (semen) helped it to tolerate its response to the antigens of the father.
He continued to say that while it cannot be ascertained for certain if prolonged sexual exposure can prevent pre-eclampsia, the study does help show that semen may aid in prevention.
October 27, 2009
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 7:58 am
The past 20 years have shown that women who have children later in life are more likely to have a baby born with Down’s syndrome.
According to birth records there was a 71% increase of cases detected while in the womb. However, the amount of infants born with the disease has fallen since women now can properly test for Down’s syndrome, and choose to abort the foetus.
In the last decade the amount of women choosing to have children past the age of 40 increased by one hundred percent, raising in 2005 to 22,200 births compared to 11,300 in 1995.
Doctors say that the chance of having a child with Down’s syndrome increases by 16% when a woman is over the age of 40, which many women are not aware of.
Although the study showed that births of babies with Down’s decreased by 1%, this does not account for the fact that many terminations occurred, and according to doctors if all babies diagnosed with Down’s were born then the number would have increased 48%.
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Dr. Maggie Blott, stated that women need to be more informed of the risks of having a child in their 40s, and the challenges that a Down’s baby can present.
October 16, 2009
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 3:57 am
A US family from Philadelphia have won £1.6m in damages from a jury, after it was ruled that the antidepressant Seroxat, which is manufactured in Britain, was responsible for heart defects in their three year old son.
The drug is called Paxil in the United States, and its makers, GlaxoSmithKline, said that they would be appealing the decision.
Both the US and UK drug regulators have warned the public that Seroxat could be potentially linked to heart defects, the manufacturers do not accept responsibility for the heart defects in the young boy.
Seroxat is a popular anti-depressant drug among pregnant women, because doctors and manufacturers often claim that the drug is not harmful to a baby.
However, the Philadelphia case is just one out of a number of US cases, in which people have attacked the drug as the cause of other pregnancy problems.
Studies performed on the drug have found suggestions and trace evidence that Paxil may increase the rate of babies born with congenital heart defects, when compared to pregnant women who not use the drugs, or other SSRI depression medications.
Additionally, in a study conducted by a Welch professor, 16% of women taking Seroxat miscarry, compared to the national average of 8%.
October 14, 2009
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 8:57 am
Scientists have proved that there are a few rare cases in which a mother may be able to pass her cancer cells onto her unborn child. Although in most cases a child’s immune system should block the cancer cells from spreading, in certain circumstances it is possible.
A new study by a British team was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which points to the case of a child that acquired leukaemia from its mother.
Scientists have struggled to answer the question of if cancer is spreadable for the last 100 years, due to the fact that it was believed that any cancer cells that could make it past the placenta would be destroyed by the child’s immune system.
However, there are 17 cases in which it appears that a mother passed the cancer cells of either melanoma, or leukaemia, to their children.
The study focused primarily on a Japanese woman and her baby with leukaemia, and researchers utilized a genetic fingerprinting technology to prove that the cancer cells had in fact come from the mother.
The result showed that the cancer cells had the same mutated cancer gene that was not an inherited trait, proving in isolation from the womb the child would not have been exposed to leukaemia.
Mel Graves, the lead researcher of the Institute of Cancer Research said the centre was glad to finally find an answer to the scientific question, but stressed that the situation was rare and that for the most part woman with cancer do not have to worry about passing it on to a foetus.
