Ahead Of The Curve

Magnetic Expansion Control (MAGEC) provides a less-invasive alternative to traditional growing rods for children with scoliosis

When 12-year-old Sarah Johnson first learned she likely had scoliosis, she burst into tears. Sarah had seen the disease’s effects first-hand.

Pediatric Cardiologist Jeffrey A. Towbin, MD, dreams of a day when there are no transplant doctors – when scientists so clearly understand the causative genes and proteins for cardiomyopathies that they are able to develop targeted therapies to protect children from heart failure and sudden death. Towbin recently became executive co-director of the Heart Institute and Chief of Cardiology at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.

Electronic cigarettes release damaging free radical toxins during the vaporization process, and exposure to e-cigarette aerosols can cause airway inflammation and compromise the immune system, according to new research published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. Researchers at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital joined scientists at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health to study the health effects of e-cigarette vapors in mice.

In 2010, the teen birth rate in Shelby County at that point was nearly twice the national average. Using evidenced-based, medically accurate curriculum developed by leading pregnancy prevention researcher Loretta Jemmott, PhD, Be Proud! Be Responsible! Memphis! has contributed to a 32 percent decrease in the county’s teen birth rate.

Pneumonia is the leading cause of hospitalization in children and respiratory viruses continue to be the most common reason children develop pneumonia, according to new results published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The results could help with improved strategies to prevent and treat pneumonia. The study was published last month as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Etiology of Pneumonia in the Community (EPIC) Study.