Highlights from the 2019 NASPGHAN/CPNP/APGNN Annual Meeting

The 2019 NASPGHAN/CPNP/APGNN Annual Meeting was held in Chicago Oct 16-19. APFED leadership attended the meeting to attend sessions and meet with providers, investigators, and other stakeholders to raise awareness, educate, and discuss the challenges and needs of patients with eosinophil-associated diseases and how those might be met.

We were also excited to once again offer abstract awards to outstanding research abstracts on eosinophil-associated gastrointestinal diseases (EGIDs). APFED funded two $750 awards to the best-scoring abstracts which are intended to help defray travel costs to the meeting so that the researchers may present their findings to their peers. Abstract award winners may go on to successfully compete for grants from APFED or from other funding mechanisms. Read about the abstract winners here.

Below, we summarize other highlights from the meeting that are of interest to our community:

• The Association of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition Nurses (APGNN) offered sessions focused on pediatric feeding disorders. These talks were designed to teach attendees about primary domains that contribute to feeding disorders and the importance of early diagnosis and intervention, as well as how to support families of children with feeding disorders.
• Drs. Amir Kagawalla (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine) and Calies Menard-Katcher (Children’s Hospital Colorado) hosted a session that offered attendees the opportunity to discuss challenging cases in EoE.
• Dr. Prerana Williamson from the University of California/Rady’s Children’s Hospital, San Diego presented research her team conducted about PAI-1 as an epithelial marker of disease severity in pediatric EoE.
• Dr. Joshua Wechsler from the Ann & Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago spoke to attendees about PPI responsiveness in patients with EoE and new international consensus regarding the role of PPIs in diagnostics and treatment. A lay-friendly summary document is available from APFED.
• The NASPGHAN Council for Pediatric Nutrition Professionals (CPNP) hosted a session specific to home parenteral nutrition and the journey from inpatient consultation to a successful transition home.
• A session specific to upper GI interventions included talks included the types of endoscopic procedures for upper GI motility and functional disorders and the utility of these techniques in the pediatric population, including the esophageal string test, cytosponge, EndoFLIP and unsedated transnasal endoscopy. This discussion was led by Dr. Joel Friedlander of Children’s Hospital of Colorado. EndoFLIP is technology that measures the distensibility, or amount of “stretch” of the esophagus, which is believed has potential to be a marker of early fibrosis in EoE. Unsedated transnasal endoscopy which involves local anesthetic and passing endoscope into the esophagus via the nose. You may view a video of Dr. Friedlander discussing and demonstrating this technology online.
• A talk designed to educate attendees about the barriers to getting medical foods covered by insurance company and what NASPGHAN is doing to help support efforts in this area (see our page about the Medical Nutrition Equity Act to learn more).
• A number of poster abstracts that were presented onsite included case studies and breaking research. Poster titles and summaries may be found on the NASPGHAN website.

The 2020 annual NASPGHAN Meeting will be held Nov 04 – 09, 2020 in San Diego.