NEW YORK -- As people around the globe recognize autism this month, researchers are launching a new study focusing on cholesterol levels of children.
It's a whole new focus of research on this mysterious syndrome. In some cases, researchers think that cholesterol levels could be too low and that could be having an effect on children's development.
Showing posts with label Johns Hopkins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Johns Hopkins. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Study Seeks Causes of Autism Prior to Birth
BALTIMORE, Md. -- When Ginny Russo goes into labor sometime at the end of May, her first call will be to her doctor. Her second: to the researchers who want to collect her baby's placenta, umbilical cord blood and first dirty diaper.
They're part of the same crew that, during the course of her pregnancy, came to Russo's Carroll County, Md., home to vacuum (and take what got sucked up with them), collect dust samples and poke their noses inside her cabinets and closets, making note of cleaning supplies, hair products and other chemicals on hand. They also took blood and urine samples and had Russo check in regularly to report any medicines she was taking, what she was eating, whether she was wearing sunscreen.
Researchers in a national study are interested in all of this because Russo already has a child, one with autism. That gives her unborn child much greater odds of also having an autism spectrum disorder. (The likelihood is less than 1 percent for the general population, but 20 percent for babies with an autistic sibling, according to Rebecca Landa, director of the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Center for Autism and Related Disorders and a co-investigator for the study in Maryland.)
They're part of the same crew that, during the course of her pregnancy, came to Russo's Carroll County, Md., home to vacuum (and take what got sucked up with them), collect dust samples and poke their noses inside her cabinets and closets, making note of cleaning supplies, hair products and other chemicals on hand. They also took blood and urine samples and had Russo check in regularly to report any medicines she was taking, what she was eating, whether she was wearing sunscreen.
Researchers in a national study are interested in all of this because Russo already has a child, one with autism. That gives her unborn child much greater odds of also having an autism spectrum disorder. (The likelihood is less than 1 percent for the general population, but 20 percent for babies with an autistic sibling, according to Rebecca Landa, director of the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Center for Autism and Related Disorders and a co-investigator for the study in Maryland.)
Monday, November 23, 2009
Researchers Warn Against Misusing Report
Dr. Carlos Pardo was trying to head off trouble.
The Johns Hopkins neurologist and his colleagues had autopsied the brains of people with autism who died in accidents and found evidence of neuroinflammation. This rare look inside the autistic brain had the potential to increase understanding of the mysterious disorder.
It also, he knew, could inspire doctors aiming to help children recover from autism to develop new experimental treatments -- even though the research was so preliminary the scientists did not know whether the inflammation was good or bad, or even how it might relate to autism.
So when Pardo and his colleagues published their paper in the Annals of Neurology in 2005, they added an online primer that clearly explained their findings in layman's terms and sternly warned doctors not to use them to develop treatments.
Over and over, doctors in the autism recovery movement have used the paper to justify experimental treatments aimed at reducing neuroinflammation.
The Johns Hopkins neurologist and his colleagues had autopsied the brains of people with autism who died in accidents and found evidence of neuroinflammation. This rare look inside the autistic brain had the potential to increase understanding of the mysterious disorder.
It also, he knew, could inspire doctors aiming to help children recover from autism to develop new experimental treatments -- even though the research was so preliminary the scientists did not know whether the inflammation was good or bad, or even how it might relate to autism.
So when Pardo and his colleagues published their paper in the Annals of Neurology in 2005, they added an online primer that clearly explained their findings in layman's terms and sternly warned doctors not to use them to develop treatments.
Over and over, doctors in the autism recovery movement have used the paper to justify experimental treatments aimed at reducing neuroinflammation.
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