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Best ways to treat nearsightedness in kids turn out to be the least expensive
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Myopia Progression Interventions in Children; JAMA Network Open, Nov. 2, 2023.
Costly treatments of nearsightedness, or myopia, may improve vision but may not be worth the expense, according to a paper in JAMA Network Open. The authors concluded that relatively inexpensive eye drops and even less costly outdoor activity provided the greatest value.
The study considered bifocals and progressive eyeglasses, soft contact lenses, red-light therapy, orthokeratology (contacts that change the eye’s shape) and highly aspherical lenslets (HALs).
Using “spherical equivalent refraction” (SER), a measure of visual improvement, and the cost for achieving it, the researchers calculated each intervention’s cost-per-SER and compared it to the value for single-vision lenses.
Physical activity (no cost) and atropine eye drops ($220 for a five-year treatment course) returned the highest value, while HALs ($448) and red light therapy ($846) provided the lowest.
Myopia affects 36% of U.S. children, typically begins around age 8 and progresses until around age 14.
Prenatal lead exposure linked to 55% greater risk of cognitive issues in kids already genetically predisposed
Prenatal Lead Exposure, Genetic Factors, and Cognitive Developmental Delay; JAMA Network Open, Oct. 23, 2023.
Low-level lead exposure during pregnancy dramatically raises the risk of cognitive development delays at age 2 in genetically predisposed children, according to a paper in JAMA Network Open.
The risks of prenatal lead exposure were already established, but just how genes and lead interact to increase that risk was unclear.
Investigators from universities in Wuhan, China, and Brown University in Rhode Island recruited 2,361 mother-child pairs (52.5% boys), among which were 292 children (12.4%) who developed a cognitive development delay by age 2.
Children whose mothers had the highest exposure during pregnancy were 55% more likely to experience delays.
But the disparity was even higher — 159% — between highest- and lowest-exposure groups with higher genetic risk.
Researchers concluded:
“Prenatal Pb exposure and genetic background may jointly contribute to an increased risk of CDD [cogntitive developmental delay] for children and indicate the possibility for an integrated strategy to assess CDD risk and improve children’s cognitive ability.”
Mom’s asthma, obesity raise child’s autism risk
Inflammatory Conditions during Pregnancy and Risk of Autism and other Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science; Oct. 11, 2023.
Researchers at healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente, the University of California and Johns Hopkins University reported strong connections between a mother’s asthma or obesity during pregnancy, and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children.
When both conditions were present, the risk of a child developing ASD was nearly 17 times greater, although the effect was noted only among girls.
The study, in the journal Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science, compared exposure during pregnancy and a later ASD diagnosis, respectively, in mothers and children born from 2011-2016, to children in the general population.
Children from asthmatic mothers were 30% more likely to develop ASD, while those from women who were obese during pregnancy were 51% more likely. But the greatest risk by far — nearly 17-fold higher — was for kids whose mothers had both issues.
Statistically significant differences, however, were seen only in girls and genetics did not seem to be a factor.
Investigators concluded that “inflammatory conditions during pregnancy” were responsible, suggesting that “children whose mothers have both asthma and obesity during pregnancy may benefit from earlier screening and intervention.”
Researchers identify culprit in COVID vaccine-induced blood disorder
PF4 activates the c-Mpl-Jak2 pathway in platelets; Blood, Oct. 26, 2023.
Life-threatening clots following COVID-19 immunization result from a faulty immune system response that activates platelets (blood cells responsible for clotting), causing them to attack a protein found in abundance in normal blood, according to a study in the journal Blood.
This reaction to immunization is called vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia.
Researchers from the United Kingdom’s (U.K.) University of Birmingham identified the culprit as platelet factor 4, a blood protein that normally works with platelets to promote healthy clotting (like repairing blood vessels after a wound) as well as blood clots, which can kill.
Platelet activation is critical for maintaining a healthy circulatory system (“hemostasis”) but is also a pivotal event in the formation of blood clots.
Clotting disorders following COVID-19 jabs were recognized less than six months after the vaccines were rolled out.
A 2021 U.K. study that used barely six months of data estimated that COVID-19 vaccine-induced clots occur in just 1 of 50,000 doses. A 2023 study claimed 1 in 100,000 was more accurate.
