Children’s of Alabama PedsCast

Thanks to medical advances, people with cystic fibrosis (CF) are living longer than they used to. But with this development comes the increasing incidence of kidney disease among these patients. That's why Tom Harris, M.D., a pulmonologist at Children's of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), is working to improve early detection. In this episode, he explains the research he's done on diagnosis and emerging biomarkers of CF-related kidney disease.

For patients with type 1 diabetes, achieving optimal glycemic control with the current treatments can be difficult. But GLP-1s may provide the solution. In this episode, Children's of Alabama endocrinologists Dr. Giovanna Beauchamp and Dr. Ortal Resnick discuss their research on this topic and the difference GLP-1 receptor agonists could make for patients with type 1 diabetes.

As director of Developmental Therapeutics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Children's of Alabama, Jamie Aye, M.D., works to develop novel treatments for children with cancer and blood disorders. In this episode, she explains what she and her colleagues are doing to discover these treatments and the difference they can make in the lives of patients.

For decades, doctors have relied heavily on ultrasound scans to monitor kidney health in children with spina bifida. Now, a new study from Children’s of Alabama urologists Stacy Tanaka, M.D., David Joseph, M.D., and other national experts, shows that ultrasound alone is not sufficient. The findings challenge current practice and suggest that blood tests measuring kidney function should be routinely performed alongside ultrasound. In this episode, Tanaka explains the findings, which have already changed practice at Children’s.

In recent years, endocrinologists at Children’s of Alabama have seen a drastic increase in the number of young patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia—extremely elevated triglyceride levels that can pose serious health risks if left untreated. To address this, Ambika Ashraf, M.D., was selected to join a group of leading national experts in developing a new framework and tool for managing the condition. In this episode, she describes the challenges of hypertriglyceridemia for patients and clinicians and explains how the new framework and tool can help. You can find the tool here: https://www.lipid.org/nla/north-american-familial-chylomicronemia-calculator-or-nafcs-scoring-tool