Study finds early signs of autism in baby brains

LONDON (Reuters) - Children who develop autism already show signs of different brain responses in their first year of life, scientists said on Thursday in a study that may in the future help doctors diagnose the disorder earlier.

British researchers studied 104 babies at six to 10 months and then again at three-years-old, and found that those who went on to develop autism had unusual patterns of brain activity in response to eye contact with another person.

The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, suggest direct brain measures might help predict the future risk of autism in babies as young as six months old, said Mark Johnson director of the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck College, University of London, who led the study.

Autism, which affects around one percent of people worldwide, includes a spectrum of disorders ranging from mental retardation and a profound inability to communicate to relatively milder symptoms such as seen in people with Asperger's syndrome.

Among core features of condition are poor communication skills and difficulties with social engagement, and doctors are keen to find ways to diagnose the condition earlier so that they can intervene to help autistic children develop coping skills.

Characteristic autistic behavior tends not to emerge before the age of two years and firm diagnoses are usually only made after this age.

"Because there are no good behavioral signs at this young age (under one year), we wanted to see whether, by measuring the activity of the brain in a more direct way, we might be able to pick up earlier warning signs," Johnson said in a telephone interview.

His team looked at babies at greater risk of developing autism later in life because they had an older brother or sister with the condition.

The researchers used passive sensors placed on the scalp to register brain activity while the babies viewed faces that switched from looking at them to looking away.

The babies who were later found to be typically developing children showed a clear difference in brain activity in response to a face looking towards them compared to a face looking away.

In contrast, most of the babies who later went on to develop autism symptoms showed much less of a difference in brain activity when someone made eye contact and then looked away.

The researchers cautioned however that the predictive markers were not 100 percent accurate, as the study did find cases of babies who showed no differences in brain function and were not later diagnosed, and vice versa.

Johnson said the results were a first step towards earlier autism diagnosis, but added that more research was needed to confirm and strengthen the brain activity markers.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/w8SwAA Current Biology, online.

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Drinking black tea may cut blood pressure

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who enjoy drinking black tea throughout the day may get the added benefit of a slight reduction in their blood pressure, suggests a new Australian study.

Although the study cannot identify specific components of the tea that might lead to a drop in blood pressure, the researchers said past studies have shown flavonoids, compounds found in many plants such as tea, are good for heart health.

"The message really isn't for an individual to go out and drink a lot of tea," said Jonathan Hodgson, the study's lead author and a researcher from the University of Western Australia. He said, instead, the drop is like a bonus.

The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, randomly assigned 95 Australians with normal blood pressure to two groups. One group drank black tea and another drank a beverage similar in taste and caffeine content.

Before the study started, the participants' blood pressure throughout the day was about 121/72 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg).

Blood pressure readings less than 120/80 mm Hg are considered normal. High blood pressure is defined as a reading of 140/90 or above. People with a reading between the two are said to have "pre-hypertension."

Each group drank their assigned beverages three times per day for six months.

After the six months the tea drinkers' systolic blood pressure -- the top number -- fell 2 mm Hg, and their diastolic blood pressure also fell about 2 mm Hg.

While a drop in blood pressure is generally good, a 2 mm Hg drop is not significant enough to bring a person with high blood pressure out of the danger zone.

"Those are small changes and are nothing like what you would see if you took a blood pressure lowering medication," said Dr. Joseph Vita, who has studied flavonoids at the Boston University School of Medicine and was not involved with the study.

However, the placebo group's systolic blood pressure went up about 1 mm Hg and their diastolic blood pressure also increased about 0.5 mm Hg.

To account for potential influences from other foods, researchers had the people in both groups cut back on flavonoid-rich foods such as apples, grapes, dark chocolate and wine four weeks before and all throughout the study.

Hodgson said making the placebo group go from a flavonoid-rich diet before the study to a lower one could have caused blood pressure to go up.

The research was funded through government grants and by Unilever Research and Development, which is an arm of the company that owns the Lipton brand.

According to the researchers, the findings might provide a bigger benefit if they are applied to a large group.

"You've got -- in the population -- large numbers of people with blood pressure around the hypertension range. So just shifting that population down can make a big difference," said Hodgson.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/zJqgVE Archives of Internal Medicine, online.

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Kids' health predicts parents' future heart disease

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When children have high cholesterol or blood pressure, their parents may have increased risks of diabetes and heart disease down the road, a new study finds.

The study, of 519 Ohio families, found that a 12-year-old's weight, cholesterol and blood pressure helped predict the odds of a parent developing heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes over the next three decades.

Researchers say the findings suggest that screening kids could have the "bonus" of spotting at-risk parents.

"Pediatric risk factors -- cholesterol, triglycerides, high blood pressure -- identified families where parents were at increased risk," said Dr. Charles J. Glueck of Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati, one of the researchers on the study.

One reason that's important, he told Reuters Health, is that many parents may not get check-ups themselves, but will regularly take their kids to the doctor.

However, not everyone agrees that children should have numerous screening tests.

It's standard for children to have their weight and blood pressure measured at "well-child" visits to the pediatrician. But only recently did experts start recommending cholesterol checks.

In November, the U.S. National Institutes of Health issued new guidelines saying children should have their cholesterol measured between the ages of 9 and 11, and again between the ages of 17 and 21. The American Academy of Pediatrics also endorsed the recommendation.

That was a shift from what experts had traditionally recommended -- namely, screening cholesterol only in certain at-risk kids, like those with diabetes or a family history of early heart disease.

And some critics questioned the new guidelines, pointing out that there's no hard data showing that screening kids' cholesterol helps their heart health in the long run.

In 2007, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) -- an expert panel with federal support -- said there was "insufficient" evidence to recommend for or against routine cholesterol tests for children and teenagers.

"There is still a lot of debate going on," Glueck said.

But he thinks the current study, plus another recent analysis of the same group, give some needed information. "Our findings provide some hard data: If you know children's risk factors, what does that tell you? It tells you a lot," Glueck said.

HEART DISEASE, STROKE, DIABETES

The study, reported in the Journal of Pediatrics, included 852 school students who, at an average age of 12, had their cholesterol, blood pressure, triglycerides and weight measured. They were reassessed 26 years later -- as were their parents, who were 66 years old, on average.

In nearly half of the families -- 47 percent -- a parent had suffered a heart attack, stroke or needed a procedure to clear blocked heart arteries by the end of the study period. In 37 percent, a parent had developed diabetes.

Overall, Glueck's team found, parents were about twice as likely to suffer early heart disease or stroke (age 60 or younger) when their child had had high blood pressure at age 12.

Parents' odds of cardiovascular problems at any age were also higher when their child had had high levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol or triglycerides.

And when children were overweight, their parents' odds of developing diabetes or high blood pressure doubled.

In an earlier study, Glueck's team had found that childhood test results also predicted the kids' own risks of developing heart problems, diabetes and high blood pressure by their late-30s.

All of that suggests that childhood screenings can help predict future risks -- in kids and parents. But there is no hard evidence that screening children actually cuts their odds of diabetes or cardiovascular disease in the long run.

STUDY UNLIKELY

To pin that down, Glueck noted, researchers would have to follow a large group of screened children for decades into adulthood, and compare them to a group who'd been randomly assigned to forgo screening as kids.

"It's very unlikely a study like that would ever be done," Glueck said.

There's also a question of expense, since the cost of screening all children for high cholesterol adds up, for an uncertain benefit. And if a child were to be put on a cholesterol-lowering statin, no one is sure what the potential side effects of early and long-term use might be.

That's one reason the USPSTF did not come down on the side of universal screening.

According to Glueck, most children with high cholesterol could be treated with a healthier diet. It's estimated that about 15 to 20 children out of every 300 U.S. kids may have high cholesterol that's related to diet and lifestyle.

A smaller proportion -- about one in every 300 to 500 children -- have an inherited form of high cholesterol called familial hypercholesterolemia. That causes high LDL levels starting early in life, and often leads to heart disease by the time a person is in his 40s or 50s.

Those kids may be placed on statins.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/xAS18e Journal of Pediatrics, online.

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