As you acquire clinical knowledge and experience throughout your medical career, you will find yourself asking many clinical questions to which the field of medicine has not yet provided adequate answers. Research is the principle path we must journey to gain some understanding of the unknown. Our pediatric faculty at UICOMP are actively conducting research to try to address some of the clinical quandaries we face as clinicians. A portion the research conducted at UICOMP is done by the pediatric housestaff with the guidance and assistance of the faculty. The following is a list of some of the recently completed and currently ongoing funded research projects being conducted at UICOMP and CHOI.

General Pediatrics

• Treatment of fever with acetaminophen and ibuprofen: a parent survey.
• Rising communication needs of non-English speaking Latin families seeking healthcare in Central Illinois.
• Long-term trends in childhood mortality from insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and varicella.
• The Role of leptin in stimulant-induced anorexia in children.

Pediatric Critical Care

• Accuracy and precision of two new generation pulse oximeters during low perfusion conditions.
• Prophylactic use of milrinone in pediatric patients at risk of developing low cardiac output syndrome following cardiac surgery.
• Pharmaocokinetic and pharmacodynamic study of lansoprazole simplified oral suspension in critically ill children.
• Extubation failure in pediatric intensive care units: a multicenter observational study.
• Non-cardiac procedures in children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
• Indomethacin in severe traumatic brain injury: a dose-response, open-label study.
• Comparison of serum pH from central venous catheter blood samples vs. arterial catheter blood samples.

Pediatric Endocrinology

• Efficacy and safety of inhaled compared with subcutaneous human insulin in an intensive insulin regimen for subjects with type 1 diabetes mellitus: a six-month outpatient parallel comparative trial.
• Long term safety of inhaled human insulin: extension of therapy in subjects with type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus completing phase III randomized treatment trials.
• Efficacy and safety of inhaled compared with subcutaneous human insulin therapy in children ages 6-11 years with type 1 diabetes mellitus: a three-month outpatient, parallel comparative trial.
• National Cooperative Growth Study-Protropin.

Pediatric Gastroenterology

• A clinical trial of megestrol acetate (MegaceÒ) in children with failure to thrive.
• A clinical trial of megestrol acetate (MegaceÒ) in children without acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
• A sixteen-week, open-label, safety study of Alosetron in non-constipated adolescents with irritable bowel syndrome.
• Safety and efficacy of pentavalent human-bovine reassortant rotavirus vaccine in healthy infants.
• Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction and abdominal pain.
   

Pediatric Hematology-Oncology

• Role of platelets in vaso-occlusive crisis using flow cytometry.
• Visualization of ristocetin platelet stimulation by flow cytometry.
• Neonatal platelets do not circulate in an activated state at birth.
• Hemostasis in intrauterine growth restriction.
• Protein-free recombinant factor VIII.
• Recombinant factor VIII pharmacosurveillance.
• COX-2 inhibitor in hemophiliac arthropathy.
• Universal hemophilia data collection study.
• Academic achievement in children with hemophilia.
• Treatment of newly diagnosed ITP in children.
• Treatment of ITP with IVIG- chromatography.
• Economics of ITP treatment.
• Tumor Necrosis Factor a in vaso-occlusive crisis.
• Fetal hemoglobin production using flow cytometry.
• Maternal hemostasis and intrauterine growth retardation.
• Anti-thrombin III use in extracorporeal life support.

Neonatology

• Oral nystatin reduces risk of candidal sepsis in neonates weighing less than 750 grams.
• Comparison of high frequency oscillatory ventilation vs. high frequency jet ventilation in prevention of chronic lung disease.

Pediatric Surgery

• Indications, appropriate pre-operative testing, and surgical outcomes of children with biliary dyskinesia.
• Aggressive surgical therapy decreases hospital stay and improves cosmetic results in children with gastroschisis.