Blog | Page 12 of 159 | Boston Children's Answers

Could peripheral neuropathy be stopped before it starts?

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Nancy Fliesler | Basic/Translational, Research

Tags: diabetes, immunology, neurology, neuroscience

An increase in high-fat, high-fructose foods in people’s diets has contributed to a dramatic increase in type 2 diabetes. This, in turn, has led to an increase in peripheral neuropathy — nerve damage, typically in the hands and feet — that causes weakness, loss of sensation and, in some, a stabbing, burning, or tingling pain. ... Read More

Tagged: diabetes, immunology, neurology, neuroscience

Every heart has a story. See how we care for them all.

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Albert McKeon | Patient Stories

Tags: aortic valve, av canal, biventricular repair, cardiac surgery, cardiology, cardiomyopathy, heart, heart patient, heterotaxy syndrome, hlhs

It’s easy to think of the heart as a common denominator — everyone has one — but no two hearts are alike. Every heart is different. Every heart has a story. For many children and adults, that story includes coming to Boston Children’s for specialized heart care. Some were born with complex congenital heart defects, while ... Read More

Tagged: aortic valve, av canal, biventricular repair, cardiac surgery, cardiology, cardiomyopathy, heart, heart patient, heterotaxy syndrome, hlhs

It’s all in the PV loops: New analytical model could improve circulation assessments before heart surgery

Posted on February 12, 2025 by Albert McKeon | Clinical, Research

Tags: blood, cardiac research, cardiac surgery, cardiology, complex biventricular repair, congenital heart defect, heart, heart center, research

The double-switch operation corrects the congenital reversal of the heart’s ventricles and its two main arteries. It’s a practical way of putting the ventricles into the position they belong so that children with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CC-TGA) can benefit from enhanced circulation. Surgery, though, doesn’t come without risks. Some children’s left ventricles — ... Read More

Tagged: blood, cardiac research, cardiac surgery, cardiology, complex biventricular repair, congenital heart defect, heart, heart center, research

Modifying macrophages in the lung could head off pulmonary hypertension

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Nancy Fliesler | Basic/Translational, Research

Tags: bronchopulmonary dysplasia, lung disease, newborn medicine, pulmonary hypertension

In the 1980s, when Stella Kourembanas, MD, began her career in neonatology, she cared for newborns with pulmonary hypertension, a disease that results in abnormally high blood pressure in the lung arteries and can lead to heart failure. Since then, treatments like inhaled nitric oxide, new vasodilators, new modalities of mechanical ventilation, and extracorporeal membrane ... Read More

Tagged: bronchopulmonary dysplasia, lung disease, newborn medicine, pulmonary hypertension

A new tool could exponentially expand our understanding of bacteria

Posted on February 5, 2025 by Nancy Fliesler | Basic/Translational, Research

Tags: antibiotics, genetics and genomics, imaging, microbes, microbiome

How do bacteria — harmless ones living in our bodies, or those that cause disease — organize their activities? A new study, combining powerful genomic-scale microscopy with a technical innovation, captured which genes bacteria turn on in different situations and in different spatial environments. The technology, described January 23 in Science, promises to take the ... Read More

Tagged: antibiotics, genetics and genomics, imaging, microbes, microbiome

MRI could reduce the mystery of brachial plexus injuries in infants

Posted on February 4, 2025 by Joanne Barker | Clinical, Research

Tags: brachial plexus, hand and upper extremity, neurosurgery, orthopedics, research

About one in 1,000 children are born with brachial plexus birth injury (BPBI), upper extremity weakness or paralysis resulting from trauma to the brachial plexus nerves during childbirth. Most children with BPBI recover with observation and minimally invasive care, but about 30 percent have injuries severe enough to lead to long-term impairment. Thanks to recent ... Read More

Tagged: brachial plexus, hand and upper extremity, neurosurgery, orthopedics, research

Unstoppable: Flatfoot correction helps Jacob take control

Posted on February 3, 2025 by Joanne Barker | Patient Stories

Tags: flatfoot, lower extremity, orthopedics

The first time Dr. Susan Mahan examined Jacob’s feet, she pressed on a tender spot near one of his arches. “You see that?” Jacob’s mother, Lucie, remembers her saying. “That bone isn’t supposed to be there.” Jacob was 13 and had spent a frustrating year trying to figure out why basketball, his greatest source of ... Read More

Tagged: flatfoot, lower extremity, orthopedics

Bringing order to disorder: Jhullian Alston, PhD

Posted on January 29, 2025 by Nancy Fliesler | People, Research

Tags: cellular and molecular medicine, proteomics, research rising stars

Proteins typically fold into orderly, predictable three-dimensional structures that dictate how they will interact with other molecules. Jhulian Alston, PhD, is drawn to intrinsically disordered proteins, whose key feature is a lack of structure. They are difficult to study and far less explored. “They’re floppy, they don’t have specific folds, they can’t slot into each ... Read More

Tagged: cellular and molecular medicine, proteomics, research rising stars

My son is a NICU GraD: Here’s what I’ve learned

Posted on January 28, 2025 by Lia Stelljes | Health and Parenting, Patient Stories

Tags: Fetal Care and Surgery Center, lung disease, newborn medicine, nicu, prematurity

My husband and I aren’t first-time parents, but when our twins were born nine weeks early a year ago, everything we thought we knew went out the window. The thing is, it wasn’t Cal and Theo’s early arrival that was the biggest shock; it was the challenges that came afterward. Life with newborns and a ... Read More

Tagged: Fetal Care and Surgery Center, lung disease, newborn medicine, nicu, prematurity

Status epilepticus: What’s changed, what to know, and a global perspective

Posted on January 27, 2025 by Nancy Fliesler | Clinical Care, Specialty Care

Tags: emergency medicine, epilepsy, neurology, research, seizures

Status epilepticus, or a prolonged seizure lasting more than five minutes, is a rare complication of epilepsy and a medical emergency that can occur even in people without a diagnosis of epilepsy. If not treated quickly, it can cause brain damage, lifelong complications, and even death. “A prolonged seizure is a race against time to ... Read More

Tagged: emergency medicine, epilepsy, neurology, research, seizures