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rest to the paediatricians in attendance, therefore, we have selected highlights of the summit which are relevant to child health. Professor Massimo Pettoello-Mantovani, Secretary General of the European Paediatric Association (EPA) who attended the summit stated: "The potential impact of gut microbiota within the field of paediatrics is not recognised
enough by general paediatricians due to a lack of transfer between the fields."
We very much hope you find this of interest.
Please click here www.paediatricgutmicrobiota.com to read about the key findings, relevant to paediatricians, from this year's Gut Microbiota for Health Summit.
FROM THE INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE
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THE ROLE OF PROBIOTICS IN THE ANTIBIOTIC ASSOCIATED DIARROHEA IN CHILDREN
The use and effectiveness of probiotics in children has been a long lasting important debate during the past years, which continues to raise the attention of pediatricans. In particular, several articles in the recent past have discussed the role of probiotics for the prevention of Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea in children, focusing on advantages and disadvantages. A paper published by the ESPGHAN Working Group for Probiotics Prebiotics in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition in December 2015 (http://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26756877) provides recommendations, developed by the Working Group (WG) on Probiotics of ESPGHAN, for the use of probiotics for the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) in children. The recommendations were based on a systematic review of previously completed systematic reviews and of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published subsequently to these reviews. The recommendations were formulated only if at least 2 RCTs that used a given probiotic (with strain specification) were available. The quality of evidence (QoE) was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) guidelines. The use of probiotics for preventing AAD was considered in particular in the presence of risk factors such as class of antibiotic (s), duration of antibiotic treatment, age, need for hospitalization, comorbidities, or previous episodes of AAD diarrhea.
Szajewska H, Canani RB, Guarino A, Hojsak I, Indrio F, Kolacek S, Orel R, Shamir R, Vandenplas Y, van Goudoever JB, Weizman Z. Probiotics for the Prevention of Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea in Children. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. Dec. 2015, Epub ahead of print (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26756877) A further recent report from a working group of gastroen-terologists and nutritionists from the Great Ormond Street Hospital (UK), the Guy's and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust (UK), the University St Joan de Resus (Sp), and the University of Nottingham UK, discusses the role of antibiotic resistance, and the background and prevalence of Antibiotic Associated Diarrhoea (AAD). The working group emphasizes that following an increasing amount of interest in therapies that may influence changes to gut microbiota, an approach that has been adopted by many healthcare professionals for the management of AAD is the use of probioticis. The report discusses the evidences reported in several studies, that the use of specific probiotics effectively reduces the incidence of AAD in children, also reduce associated healthcare costs and aid antibiotic compliance.
Castillejo De Villasante G, Koglmaier J, Lindley K, Hallowes S and Avery A. Antibiotic Associated Diarrhoea
and the use of probiotics in children. REPORT 2015 (http://paediatricgutmicrobiota.com/aadeng/)
GENETIC ANALYSIS OF CHILDREN WITH CONGENITAL TUFTING ENTEROPATHY (CTE). A CLINICAL CONDITION CARACHTERIZED BY DIARRHEA
• Congenital tufting enteropathy (CTE), an inherited autosomal recessive rare disease, is a severe diarrhea of infancy which is clinically characterized by absence of inflammation and presence of intestinal villous atrophy. The importance of genetic analysis in the diagnosis of genetic diseases is a well consolidated notion. However, genetic analysis covering all the wide range of genetic diseases if is not always available in all hospital centers. In fact, since histological analysis is still not decisive in predicting the outcome of CTE patients, the identification of new mutations contributes to the genotype-phenotype correlation and provides further information about the assessment of the clinical outcome of the patients. A recent article published by D'Apolito et al in the World Journal of Pediatrics (D'Apolito et al. Genetic analysis of Italian patients with congenital tufting enteropathy, World J Pediatr. 2015 Dec 18. Epub ahead of print) emphasizes the importance of genetic analysis, in particular in the Congenital Tufting Enteropathy (CTE). The study underlines the important role of performing the molecular screening of both the typical EpCAM and SPINT2 genes in the diagnosis of various congenital diarrheal disorders. The identification of a novel EpCAM mutation increasing the mutational spectrum of allelic variants associated with this gene further contributes to better understanding the pathogenesis of disorders. LINK: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26684320
Collaboration for genetic analysis offered to the community of Pediatrics:
The first author, Dr. Maria D'Apolito, responsible of the Pediatric Research Laboratory at UNIFG, reports that the Institute of Pediatrics of the University of Foggia (Italy) offers the pro bono scientific support of the Research Center of the University of Foggia, providing the molecular screening of both EpCAM and SPINT2 genes to those centers needing genetic analysis to perform final diagnosis in children with suspected Congenital Tufting Enteropathy and other genetic disorders.
EPA/UNEPSA thanks Dr. D'Apolito for her kind and generous offer.
For those that may be interested, Dr. D'Apolito can be contacted directly using the following information:
Dr. Maria D'Apolito. Institute of Pediatrics University of Foggia, Italy
Centro di Ricerche Biomediche «E. Altomare» Via Napoli, 20/71122 Foggia, Italy Email: maria.dapolito@unifg.it Tel: 0039.0881.588091
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