Reports and Findings
Macrophages are the major resident immune cells in human airways coordinating responses to infection and injury. In cystic fibrosis, neutrophils are recruited to the airways shortly after birth, and actively exocytose damaging enzymes prior to chronic infection, suggesting a potential defect in macrophage immunomodulatory function.
Group A streptococcal (GAS) infections can trigger an immune-mediated response resulting in acute rheumatic fever. The role of social and environmental risk factors for GAS pharyngitis and skin infections are not well understood.
Recent evidence suggests that burn patients are at increased risk of hospital admission for infection, mental health conditions, cardiovascular disease and cancer for many years after discharge for the burn injury itself.
Research question: Are asthma and allergies more common in adolescents conceived with assisted reproductive technologies (ART) compared with adolescents conceived without?
Invasive fungal disease (IFD) remains a challenging complication of treatment for paediatric acute leukaemia. Consensus fungal treatment guidelines recommend withholding chemotherapy to facilitate immune recovery in this setting, yet prolonged delays in leukaemia therapy increase risk of relapse.
Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are common chronic respiratory diseases, and some patients have overlapping disease features, termed asthma-COPD overlap. Patients characterized with ACO have increased disease severity; however, the mechanisms driving this have not been widely studied.
Clinical studies supported by immunological data indicate early life intervention strategies to be promising in reducing the growing global burden of food allergies. The events that predispose to food allergy, including the induction of allergen-specific immune responses, appear to be initiated early in development.
Pregnant women are recognised as being at risk of serious illness from influenza. Despite this, and longstanding national recommendations for vaccination in pregnancy, vaccine uptake remains suboptimal. This study aims to determine factors associated with women declining influenza vaccination in pregnancy.
Neurodevelopmental impairments resulting from Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) can increase the likelihood of justice system involvement. This study compared offence characteristics in young people with FASD to demographically matched controls (n = 500) in Western Australia.
This study investigated the dental attendance patterns of Australian children with and without disabilities using data from Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.