
Kai O. HenselUniversitätsmedizin Göttingen
Kai O. Hensel
MD (EU/UK/USA), PhD, Priv.-Doz., Dr. med.
About
81
Publications
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Introduction
Kai O. Hensel currently works as a consultant at the Department of Neontatology, University Medical Centre Göttingen, Germany. Kai does research in Molecular Biology, Paediatrics, Gastroenterology/Hepatology, Neonatology, Cardiology and Health Services Sciences.
Additional affiliations
May 2012 - present
Publications
Publications (81)
Purpose
In late 2022, a surge of severe S. pyogenes infections was reported in several European countries. This study assessed hospitalizations and disease severity of community-acquired bacterial infections with S. pyogenes, S. pneumoniae, N. meningitidis, and H. influenzae among children in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany, during the last q...
Background:
In late 2022, a surge of severe bacterial infections caused by S. pyogenes was reported in several European countries, including Germany. This study assessed disease burden and severity of hospitalizations for community-acquired bacterial infections with S. pyogenes, S. pneumoniae, N. meningitidis, and H. influenzae among children in No...
Background & Aims
Human intestinal epithelial organoids (IEO) are a powerful tool to model major aspects of intestinal development, health and diseases, as patient derived cultures retain many features found in-vivo. A necessary aspect of the organoid model is the requirement to expand cultures in-vitro through several rounds of passaging. This is...
Head development is a surrogate for brain development in infants and is related to neurocognitive outcome. There is only limited knowledge on early extra-uterine head shape and size assessment in very preterm infants. Here, 26 very preterm infants with a mean gestational age of 29.1 ± 2.2 weeks and a mean birth weight of 1273.8 ± 427.7 g underwent...
Background & Aims
Human intestinal epithelial organoids (IEO) are a powerful tool to model major aspects of intestinal development, health and diseases, as patient derived cultures retain many features found in-vivo . A necessary aspect of the organoid model is the requirement to expand cultures in-vitro through several rounds of passaging. This is...
Worldwide, recommendations for timely surgical repair of undescended testis (UDT) are not well translated into clinical practice, potentially due to suboptimal patient/parent education. We evaluated the frequency and content of information provided to affected parents of 310 consecutive cases of UDT undergoing orchidopexy. Parents were enquired reg...
Background
Worldwide, alcohol-related road traffic accidents represent a major avoidable health risk. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of self-estimating the degree of acute alcohol intoxication regarding the legal driving limit, and to identify risk factors for misjudgement.
Methods
In this prospective randomised controlled cros...
The development of head shape and volume may reflect neurodevelopmental outcome and therefore is of paramount importance in neonatal care. Here, we compare head morphology in 25 very preterm infants with a birth weight of below 1500 g and / or a gestational age (GA) before 32 completed weeks to 25 term infants with a GA of 37–42 weeks at term equiv...
Technology is driving a revolution in healthcare, but paediatric services have not fully harnessed the potential. Digital health solutions yet to achieve their promise in paediatrics include electronic health records, decision support systems, telemedicine and remote consultations, despite the accelerated uptake during the COVID-19 pandemic. There...
Objective
To describe the characteristics and clinical course of children and young people with inflammatory bowel disease and sclerosing cholangitis (IBD-SC).
Study design
Retrospective analysis of clinical characteristics, management, and outcome of two separate cohorts of children and young people with IBD-SC managed in a tertiary pediatric gas...
Background
ESPGHAN guidelines stipulate the recommended quantities of parenteral vitamins and trace elements to be used in children on home parenteral nutrition (HPN). The use of standard fixed-dose multivitamin/multitrace products makes tailoring the individual intake of these nutrients challenging in daily clinical practice. Importantly, the dosa...
The 2010 Alcohol Hangover Research Group consensus paper defined a cutoff blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.11% as a toxicological threshold indicating that sufficient alcohol had been consumed to develop a hangover. The cutoff was based on previous research and applied mostly in studies comprising student samples. Previously, we showed that s...
Background
Faecal calprotectin (FCP) is a powerful tool to predict inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. In the paediatric patient population, the reference value of < 50 μg/g and the influence of age on FCP levels result in a high number of redundant investigations and specialist referrals. We assessed paedia...
In 2020, the Sars-CoV2 pandemic has rapidly changed daily life inside and outside of hospitals and practises. Following the “flatten-the-curve” imperative, with a widespread lockdown in place most aspects of healthcare provision have been largely reduced or even completely placed on hold. The increasing burden of untreated disease poses a significa...
Objective
To assess whether late orchidopexy for undescended testis represents delayed treatment of primary undescended testis or later-occurring acquired undescended testis.
Study design
We examined boys undergoing orchidopexy for cryptorchidism regarding age at surgery and entity of undescended testis. We characterized differences between primar...
The 2010 Alcohol Hangover Research Group consensus paper defined a cutoff blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.11% as a toxicological threshold indicating that sufficient alcohol had been consumed to develop a hangover. The cutoff was based on previous research and applied mostly in studies comprising student samples. Previously, we showed that s...
Advanced echocardiography techniques such as speckle tracking imaging are sensitive diagnostic tools frequently used in various clinical and scientific scenarios. Importantly, imperfect reproducibility and dependence of post-processing algorithms on echocardiographic image quality are potential methodological limitations. Therefore, meticulous asse...
Background
Alcohol-induced hangover constitutes a significant, yet understudied, global hazard and a large socio-economic burden. Old folk wisdoms such as “Beer before wine and you'll feel fine; wine before beer and you'll feel queer” exist in many languages. However, whether these concepts in fact reduce hangover severity is unclear.
Objectives
T...
The importance for mortality and morbidity of an in-house pediatric surgery unit for premature infants with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) remains undefined. Data on 389 consecutive very low birth weight infants with a birth weight <1250 g admitted between 2009 and 2014 was retrospectively analyzed in two almost identical neonatal intensive care u...
Background The number of inconspicuous results of esophagogastroduodenoscopies (EGDs) in childhood appears to be disturbingly high. The aim of this study was to analyze the diagnostic yield of EGD and to determine its relevance of specific clinical indications.
Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of 380 consecutive pediatric patients who...
Background
In hepatocyte nuclei, hepatitis B virus (HBV) genomes occur episomally as covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA). The HBV X protein (HBx) is required to initiate and maintain HBV replication. The functional nuclear localization of cccDNA and HBx remains unexplored.
Results
To identify virus–host genome interactions and the underlying n...
Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) is increasingly used during functional assessments. However, reproducibility and dependence on echocardiographic image quality for speckle tracking stress echocardiography in pediatric patients have not been studied to date. 127 consecutive normotensive children without structural heart disease (mean age 13.4...
Background
Mitral annular plane systolic excursion (MAPSE) is an increasingly used echocardiography technique to assess left ventricular (LV) function. However, reproducibility and dependence on echocardiographic image quality for MAPSE in pediatric patients have not been studied to date.
Methods
We analyzed 284 transthoracic echocardiograms perfo...
MAPSE measurements according to echocardiographic image quality.
(EPS)
Correlation of MAPSE with conventional and novel echocardiographic parameters.
(PDF)
Scatter plots demonstrating measurements of MAPSE and other echocardiographic myocardial performance parameters.
(EPS)
Correlation coefficients (r) of MAPSE imaging and other echocardiographic myocardial performance parameters (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient).
(PDF)
Background:
Data on left ventricular (LV) function in patients with neurocardiogenic syncope (NS) is conflicting in adults and lacking in children. The aim of this study was to analyze LV myocardial performance in children with NS at rest and during head-up tilt-table (HUTT) testing.
Methods:
This is the first study to combine HUTT and speckle-t...
Objectives:
To assess the implementation of the current guideline and identify potential underlying causes for late surgery in children with Undescended testis (UDT) in Germany. UDT is the most common surgical issue in paediatric urology. To avoid malignant degeneration and subfertility current guidelines recommend orchidopexy during the first yea...
Methods:
Patients who had received corrective surgery of several congenital heart defects (surgical VSD closure, Fallot, TGA after atrial or arterial switch or Fontan-type circulation for univentricular AV-connection) were interviewed in the office of their home peadiatric cardiologist. HRQoL in children along 7 dimensions was assessed using a sta...
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an established risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, whether cardiac consequences present early in IBD is unknown. This is the first study in children aiming to unmask altered myocardial mechanics in IBD. We enrolled 50 consecutive normotensive children with Crohn's disease (CD) (n = 28) or ulcer...
Worldwide, chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major health problem and no cure exists. Importantly, hepatocyte intrusion by HBV particles results in a complex deregulation of both viral and host cellular genetic and epigenetic processes. Among the attempts to develop novel therapeutic approaches against HBV infection, several options ta...
In the course of a hospital management takeover, a microbial outbreak took place in a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Here, we characterize the outbreak and its management. About 4 months prior to takeover, there was a sharp increase in positive isolates for MSSA and multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). Simultaneously, the nursing s...
The value of conventional echocardiography is limited by differences in inter-individual image interpretation and therefore largely dependent on the examiners' expertise. Speckle tracking Echocardiography (STE) is a promising but technically challenging method that can be used to quantitatively assess regional and global systolic and diastolic myoc...
Weltweit gehören die chronischen Hepatitis-B- und -C-Infektionen unverändert zu den epidemiologisch bedeutsamen Erkrankungen. Im Folgenden werden der Übertragungsweg, die epidemiologische Situation in Deutschland, der Spontanverlauf und die aktuellen Therapieoptionen vorgestellt.
Diabetic cardiomyopathy substantially accounts for mortality in diabetes mellitus. The pathophysiological mechanism underlying diabetes-associated nonischemic heart failure is poorly understood and clinical data on myocardial mechanics in early stages of diabetes are lacking. In this study we utilize speckle tracking echocardiography combined with...
Background
Echocardiographic myocardial performance parameters such as strain and strain rate are increasingly used to assess systolic and diastolic function in patients with diabetes mellitus and several other clinical and scientific scenarios. While long-term metabolic marks such as HbA1C are inherently assessed in diabetic patients, the actual b...
The Keystone Symposium ‘MicroRNAs and Noncoding RNAs in Cancer’, Keystone, CO, USA, 7–12 June 2015
Since the discovery of RNAi, great efforts have been undertaken to unleash the potential biomedical applicability of small noncoding RNAs, mainly miRNAs, involving their use as biomarkers for personalized diagnostics or their usability as active agent...
Cryptorchidism is the most common disorder in paediatric surgery in the Western world and a major risk factor for subfertility and malignancy. In 2009, German national guidelines were changed to recommend that treatment for undescended testes should be completed by the age of 1 instead of 2. However, the share of boys undergoing orchidopexy for cry...
Background:
Undescended testis (UDT) is the most common disorder in pediatric surgery and one of the most important risk factors for malignancy and subfertility. In 2009 local guidelines were modified and now recommend treatment to be completed by the age of 1. Aim of this study was to analyze age distribution at the time of orchidopexy, whether t...
Background:
Hardware removals are among the most commonly performed surgical procedures worldwide. Current literature offers little data concerning postoperative patient satisfaction. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the patients' point of view on implant removal.
Methods:
We surveyed patients of a German level one trauma center, who und...
Background:
Pedestrians who are involved in motor vehicle collisions present with a unique trauma situation. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the specific clinical characteristics of this patient population in comparison to injured motor vehicle occupants in the medical emergency setting.
Methods:
A total of 4435 pedestrian traffic colli...
Aims Type-1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is among the most common chronic diseases in children. Serious long-term complications include both ultra-morphologic and functional cardiac impairment. Whether these pathologic processes already take place in the early phase of T1DM yet has to be determined. Aim of this prospective, blinded, clinical study was...
AIM:
To analyze how enteral food introduction affects intestinal gene regulation and chromatin structure in preterm pigs.
MATERIALS & METHODS:
Preterm pigs were fed parenteral nutrition plus/minus slowly increasing volumes of enteral nutrition. Intestinal gene-expression and chromatin structure were analyzed 5 days after birth.
RESULTS:
Enteral f...
Background
An adverse intrauterine environment leads to permanent physiological changes including vascular tone regulation, potentially influencing the risk for adult vascular diseases. We therefore aimed to monitor responsive NOS3 expression in human umbilical artery endothelial cells (HUAEC) and to study the underlying epigenetic signatures invol...
In the intestinal mucosa trefoil factors (TFF) and mucins (Muc) - primarily produced by goblet cells - are thought to play a major role in providing barrier function during infection and inflammation. To investigate their role in pediatric Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) we obtained mucosal biopsies of children with CD, UC and heal...
Background
Virus-host interactions result in altered gene expression profiles in host cell nuclei and enable virus particle production, thus obligatorily involving changes in their epigenomes. Neither such epigenome changes nor their response to antiviral treatment have been extensively studied to date, although viral infections are known to contr...
Objectives:
Strain echocardiography (StE) promises to be a new tool for quantitative assessment of cardiac function. Analysis of intra- and interobserver reliability is an important aspect in the process of developing these novel techniques from theory to the implementation into daily routine diagnostics.The purpose of the study was to estimate re...
Early diagnosis of cardiac alterations in hypertensive heart disease is still challenging. Since such patients might have depressed global LV systolic strain or strain rate when EF is still normal, speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) and tissue-Doppler imaging (TDI) combined with stress echocardiography might improve early diagnosis of cardiac...
In order to assess the increase of myocardial strain during the three phases of physical stress echocardiography, mean differences in peak systolic LV strain were calculated for both STE and TDI-derived strain values. Supplementary table 1 (TDI) and 2 (STE) present the comparison of LV strain values at rest and during exercise testing for both the...
Objective In the intestinal mucosa trefoil factors [1] (TFF) and mucins [2] (Muc) are primarily produced by goblet cells and thought to play a major role in providing barrier function during infection and inflammation [3,4]. To investigate their role in pediatric Crohn´s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) we obtained mucosal biopsies of child...
Die Erstellung einer Leitlinie ist die eine Sache, die entsprechende Umsetzung in der täglichen klinischen Praxis allerdings eine andere (1, 2). Die erste Leitlinie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Kinderchirurgie zur Behandlung des Hodenhochstands aus dem Jahr 1999 behielt lange Gültigkeit und wurde im Januar 2009 überarbeitet auf der Homepage der A...
Objectives:
To perform a prospective, blinded, randomized interventional trial in patients with recurrent abdominal pain. The primary endpoint was to determine the abdominal pain intensity after 2 weeks of fructose restricted diet. Secondary endpoints were changes of pain frequency and a secondary symptom score (SSS).
Methods:
103 individuals wi...
Aims Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections in early childhood are associated with a high risk of chronification and the subsequent risk of cirrhosis and development of hepato-cellular carcinoma (HCC) in adulthood. Immunization success rates are still suboptimal and treatment options bare considerable undesired side effects and drug resis-tance develop...
Wir berichten über ein ehemaliges Frühgeborenes der 34. + 4. Schwangerschaftswoche, das im Laufe des ersten Lebensjahres wiederholt aufgrund von scheinbar nicht in Zusammenhang stehenden Symptomen hospitalisiert werden musste. Es zeigten sich rezidivierene Atemwegsinfekte, Petechien im Gesicht und am weichen Gaumen, Eosinophilie, sowie eine Hypogam...