http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Professor Alfirevic from the Department of Women's and Children's Health at the University of Liverpool argues that although premature children tend to have lower cognitive ability than their peers and 14.9 million are born prematurely each year worldwide, is it really possible to stop spontaneous preterm labour? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-premature-delivery-safe-professor-drugs.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Tue, 09 Oct 2012 18:30:04 EST news269021226 Among premature, very low-birth-weight infants requiring a transfusion, use of fresh red blood cells (RBCs) compared with standard RBC transfusion practice did not improve clinical outcomes that included rates of complications or death, according to a study in the October 10 issue of JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the AABB (formerly the American Association of Blood Banks) Annual Meeting. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-fresh-red-blood-cells-transfusions.html Other Mon, 08 Oct 2012 09:51:03 EST news268908655 Today investigators at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City reported the first use of whole genome information for diagnosing critically ill infants. As reported in Science Translational Medicine, the team describes STAT-Seq, a whole genome sequencing approach - from blood sample to returning results to a physician - in about 50 hours. Currently, testing even a single gene takes six weeks or more. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-hour-genome-sequencing-rapid-diagnosis.html Genetics Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:00:05 EST news268488385 The newborns of obese pregnant women suffering from obstructive sleep apnea are more likely to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit than those born to obese mothers without the sleep disorder, reports a study published online today in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-apnea-obese-pregnancy-women-linked.html Sleep apnea Thu, 20 Sep 2012 17:00:01 EST news267378813 Biju Parekkadan saw his future in the plight of a newborn thousands of miles away. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-body-disease.html Medical research Mon, 03 Sep 2012 09:44:58 EST news265884286 Premature babies are more likely to survive when they are born in high-level neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) than in hospitals without such facilities, and this benefit is considerably larger than previously reported. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-survival-premature-babies-high-level-nicus.html Pediatrics Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:40:49 EST news262266036 In a new study released today in New England Journal of Medicine, researchers demonstrate that whole genome sequencing can provide clinically relevant data on bacterial transmission within a timescale that can influence infection control and patient management. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-tracking-mrsa-real-highlights-benefits.html Genetics Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:00:01 EST news258811176 (HealthDay) -- Maternal smoking has been identified as a risk factor associated with the development of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in premature infants, according to a study published June 11 in Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-preemies-maternal-tied-necrotizing-enterocolitis.html Pediatrics Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:36:53 EST news258640517 In a study that included more than 72,000 very low-birth-weight infants, among those born in hospitals with recognition for nursing excellence (RNE), compared with non-RNE hospitals, there was a significantly lower rate of hospital infection, death at 7-days and severe intraventricular hemorrhage but not lower rates of death at 28-days or hospital stay mortality, according to a study in the April 25 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-low-birth-weight-infants-born-hospitals-nursing.html Health Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:38:06 EST news254504273 A premature baby who survived hours in a morgue refrigerator after being mistakenly declared dead showed "slight improvement" Saturday after suffering from cardiac arrest, her mother said. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-argentine-miracle-baby-slight.html Other Sun, 15 Apr 2012 14:07:13 EST news253717610 Late gestation is a busy time for babies getting ready for life outside the womb, particularly for functions critical to life such as breathing and maintaining an adequate heartbeat. These two functions are connected in mature infants and healthy people throughout life, so measuring their level of connectedness can give doctors a cue about whether an infant is ready to head home or needs to remain in the care of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Current methods to analyze this connection are not yet fully developed, leaving doctors and nurses without an optimal way to deal with periodically missing data or natural variations in breathing or heartbeat. Now, however, researchers in Virginia have found a way around this problem by using a new analytical method that looks for so-called cardiorespiratory interaction using individual breaths and heartbeats and relating the two in time. The findings shed light on which infants may be mature enough to leave the NICU, showing that postnatal age seems to be an indicator of maturity, but birth weight or gestational age at birth are not. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-analysis-premature-infants-heartbeats-cues.html Health Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:25:03 EST news251997884 (HealthDay) -- When parents of very small premature infants are stressed or depressed, their children are more likely to develop behavioral problems by age 3, according to new research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-stressed-parents-affect-preemie-behavior.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 16 Mar 2012 06:00:03 EST news251093614 When babies are born prematurely, they are thrust into a hospital environment that while highly successful at saving their lives, is not exactly the same as the mother's womb where ideal development occurs. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is equipped with highly skilled care givers and incubators that regulate temperature and humidity, but Amir Lahav, ScD, PhD, director of the Neonatal Research Lab at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) thought that something was missing - simulation of the maternal sounds that a baby would hear in the womb. Now, new research conducted by Lahav and colleagues links exposure to an audio recording of mom's heartbeat and her voice to lower incidence of cardiorespiratory events in preterm infants. This research is published online in The Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-mom-voice-health-premature-babies.html Health Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:20:01 EST news250426209 A new study published in the journal Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica reveals that induction of labor at term in the absence of maternal or fetal indications increases the risk of cesarean section and other postpartum complications for the woman, as well as neonatal complications. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-unnecessary-induction-labor-cesarean-section.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:51:01 EST news250253455 Scientists at University College Dublin have discovered a new way of measuring the potential success rate of an embryo before it is transferred back into the womb during in vitro fertilisation (IVF). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-successful-ivf-embryos-scientists.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:10:14 EST news249732608 In the past few years, researchers at the University of Helsinki have made several breakthroughs in discovering how the brain of preterm babies work, in developing treatments to protect the brain, and in developing research methods suitable for hospital use. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-eeg-brain-tracts.html Neuroscience Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:22:34 EST news248790149 Preterm infants born with extremely low birth weights have an increased risk of death during the first year of life. Although researchers have extensively studied risk factors that could contribute to the death of preterm infants, limited information is available after infants are released from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). A new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, identifies that African-American background, longer stay in the NICU, and poorer access to healthcare can increase the risk of death after being discharged from the NICU. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-factors-death-extremely-birth-weight.html Health Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:20:03 EST news247985627 (AP) -- One of the world's smallest surviving babies was discharged Friday from the hospital where she spent nearly five months in an incubator - but not before getting the Hollywood treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-tiny-baby-los-angeles-hospital.html Other Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:50:01 EST news246347387 (AP) -- One of the world's smallest surviving babies is headed home. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-la-hospital-tiny-baby-home.html Other Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:02:12 EST news246261693 At birth, Melinda Star Guido was so tiny she could fit into the palm of her doctor's hand. Weighing just 9 1/2 ounces - less than a soda can - she is among the smallest babies ever born in the world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-palm-sized-baby-2nd-smallest.html Health Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:01:21 EST news243147330 Poorly managed pain in the neonatal intensive care unit has serious short- and long-term consequences, causing physiological and behavioral instability in preterm infants and long-term changes in their pain sensitivity, stress arousal systems, and developing brains. In a study published in the November issue of PAIN, researchers report that breastfeeding during minor procedures mitigated pain in preterm neonates with mature breastfeeding behaviors. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-breastfeeding-pain-preterm-infants.html Health Wed, 19 Oct 2011 03:29:17 EST news238213734 New research shows that exposure to stressors in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is associated with alterations in the brain structure and function of very preterm infants. According to the study now available in Annals of Neurology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society, infants who experienced early exposure to stress displayed decreased brain size, functional connectivity, and abnormal motor behavior. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-preterm-infants-exposed-stressors-nicu.html Neuroscience Tue, 04 Oct 2011 04:38:32 EST news236921898 (Medical Xpress) -- A worldwide study involving University of Sydney researchers has concluded that a costly and controversial treatment for neonatal sepsis is ineffective. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-costly-treatment-ineffective-babies.html Health Fri, 30 Sep 2011 06:45:57 EST news236583935 An innovative approach to treating neonatal feeding problems at Nationwide Children's Hospital has allowed infants who were struggling to feed orally to be discharged earlier and without feeding tubes, subsequently saving millions of annual healthcare charges. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-neonatal-infant-disorders-infants-lifetime.html Health Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:50:17 EST news234539393 In a long-running randomized study of over 3,000 preterm infants, those whose care included the Heart Rate Observation System, or HeRO monitor, experienced greater than 20 percent reduced mortality, effectively saving one infant's life for every 48 who were monitored. The results of this multicenter study of the HeRO monitor, co-sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and Medical Predictive Science Corporation (MPSC), appear in The Journal of Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-clinical-reveals-statistically-significant-reduction.html Other Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:43:57 EST news233484129 A newborn who tipped the scales at more than 16 pounds (7.3 kilograms) broke the local hospital's weight records in Longview, Texas, press reported Monday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-pound-texas-baby-hospital-weight.html Health Tue, 12 Jul 2011 03:12:25 EST news229659125 Withdrawal of life-sustaining support and withholding lifesaving measures (such as CPR) appear to be the primary modes of infant deaths in a neonatal intensive care unit, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-trends-treatment-infants-neonatal-intensive.html Health Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:00:04 EST news229009342 Guidelines that reduce the use of mechanical ventilation with premature infants in favor of a gentler form of respiratory support can profoundly affect those children's outcomes while reducing the cost of care, according to a team of researchers at Children's Hospital Boston. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-guidelines-ventilator-premature-infants-easier.html Other Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:07:27 EST news227182022 Extremely premature infants who screen positive for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at 18 months of age may not actually have autism. Rather, they may fail screening tests due to an unrelated cognitive or language delay, according to research to be presented Sunday, May 1, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Denver. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-screening-preterm-infants-autism-months.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Sun, 01 May 2011 06:19:34 EST news223449547 Extremely premature babies fed human donor milk are less likely to develop the dangerous intestinal condition necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) than babies fed a standard premature infant formula derived from cow's milk, according to research by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and elsewhere. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-formula-fed-preemies-higher-dangerous-gi.html Health Sun, 01 May 2011 05:41:59 EST news223447294