Archives of Disease in Childhood. Fetal and Neonatal Edition articles from July 2003

Archives of Disease in Childhood. Fetal and Neonatal Edition archives from July 2003

Neonatal long lines: are they safe? (Intensive Care).
July 1, 2003... Central venous (CV) lines have been the subject of much professional debate and public exposure in the UK following an enquiry into the deaths of four children in Manchester as the result of cardiac tamponade. One of the recommendations of this...

The light still shines, but not that brightly? The current status of perinatal near infrared spectroscopy. (Review).
July 1, 2003... Efforts have been made to find new, non-invasive methods for assessing tissue oxygenation and haemodynamics, particularly in the brain of the fetus and the newborn infant. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a developmental technique that...

Magnetic resonance imaging of preterm brain injury. (Review).
July 1, 2003... Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has proved to be a valuable tool for monitoring development and pathology in the preterm brain. This imaging modality is useful for assessing numerous pathologies including periventricular leukomalacia,...

Limitations of ultrasonography for diagnosing white matter damage in preterm infants. (Original Article).
July 1, 2003... Objectives: To compare the accuracy of ultrasonography (US) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in diagnosing white matter abnormalities in preterm infants and to determine the specific indications for MRI. Design: Prospective cohort...

Consent for clinical research in the neonatal intensive care unit: a retrospective survey and a prospective study. (Medical Ethics).
July 1, 2003... Background: Recruitment into research studies in the neonatal intensive care unit has been problematic. Therefore suggestions have been made to take decision making about enrolment out of the hands of the parents. Objective: To understand...

Evaluation of echocardiography on the neonatal unit. (Original Article).
July 1, 2003... Background: Echocardiography is art investigation that is being used increasingly on the neonatal unit. There is some controversy as to whether this service can be provided safely and effectively by neonatologists or whether it should only be...

Pericardial effusion and cardiac tamponade as complications of neonatal long lines: are they really a problem?
July 1, 2003... Aim: To estimate the frequency of pericardial effusion/cardiac tamponade associated with the use of neonatal percutaneous long lines (PLLs) over the past five years. Method: A retrospective nationwide postal survey, of all neonatal and...

Factors associated with weaning in full term and preterm infants. (Original Article).
July 1, 2003... Background: The optimal age for the introduction of solid foods (weaning) in infants is poorly researched yet may have implications for both short and longer term health. Many parents do not comply with current guidelines. Objective: To...

Weaning preterm infants: a randomised controlled trial. (Original Article).
July 1, 2003... Objective: To assess the effect on growth and iron status in preterm infants of a specially devised weaning strategy compared with current best practices in infant feeding. The preterm weaning strategy recommended the early onset of weaning and...

Naloxone for narcotic exposed newborn infants: systematic review. (Original Article).
July 1, 2003... Background: Naloxone, a specific opiate antagonist, is available for the treatment of newborn infants with respiratory depressian that may be due to transplacentally acquired opiates. Aims: To determine if this treatment has any clinically...

Fever in healthy asymptomatic newborns during the first days of life. (Original Article).
July 1, 2003... Objective: To determine the characteristics of febrile Full term infants during the first days of life, and to discover the rate of serious bacterial infections among low risk neonates with systemic fever. Design: A retrospective...

Noise levels within the ear and post-nasal space in neonates in intensive care. (Original Article).
July 1, 2003... Background: Noise exposure in neonatal units has long been suspected of being a cause of hearing loss associated with such units. The noise intensity to which the neonate is exposed varies with the type of ventilatory support used. Also, the...

Effects of gestational age and prenatal and perinatal events on the coagulation status in premature infants. (Original Article).
July 1, 2003... Objective: To study prospectively the effects of prematurity and perinatal events on the coagulation status of premature infants. Patients and main outcome measures: Blood samples from premature infants born before 37 gestational weeks were...

Effects of vitamin E supplementation during erythropoietin treatment of the anaemia of prematurity. (Original Article).
July 1, 2003... Aims: To evaluate the effects of vitamin E supplementation on haemoglobin concentration and the requirement for transfusion in premature infants treated with erythropoietin and iron. Methods: Randomised, double blind, placebo controlled...

Frequent wheeze at follow up of very preterm infants: which factors are predictive? (Original Article).
July 1, 2003... Objective: To determine if chest radiograph appearance at 28 days or 36 weeks postmenstrual age (PMA) can predict recurrent wheeze or cough at follow up in prematurely born infants more effectively than readily available clinical data. ...

Effect of ethnicity on mortality of very low birthweight infants in Israel. (Original Article).
July 1, 2003... Background: Multiple demographic, genetic, and environmental factors differ between Muslim and Jewish infants in Israel. Objective: To evaluate whether, after adjustment for perinatal factors associated with mortality, excess mortality...

Bedside balloon atrial septostomy on neonatal units. (Short Report).
July 1, 2003... Traditionally, neonates with transposition of the great arteries are immediately transferred to a cardiac centre. Travelling to the bedside to perform a balloon atrial septostomy and allowing the child to remain there for a few days before...

Autoimmune haemolytic anaemia in a newborn infant. (Case Report).
July 1, 2003... The case is reported of an infant with autoimmune haemolytic anaemia of perinatal onset. Combined treatment with steroids and cyclosporin was necessary to improve haemolysis and reduce the high transfusion requirements. Treatment was...

Subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn: hypercalcaemia with hepatic and atrial myocardial calcification. (Case Report).
July 1, 2003... Subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn (SCFN) is a very rare disorder, which can be complicated by hypercalcaemia and thrombocytopenia. The case is presented of an infant with SCFN and symptomatic hypercalcaemia, who developed calcifications...

Stethoscope head to body weight ratios in the extremely preterm infant. (Images in Neonatal Medicine).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... It has been our observation that large nursing style stethoscopes are often used on extremely premature infants, whereas paradoxically a smaller neonatal stethoscope is usually used for the term neonate. Stethoscope heads were weighed using...

Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) of Lichfield and placental respiration. (Perinatal Lessons From the Past).(Biography)
July 1, 2003... Erasmus Darwin was a great philosopher, scientist, inventor, poet, and physician. His creative intellect has been compared with that of Leonardo da Vinci. This brief article draws attention to two perinatal contributions made on placental...

Letters.(Weighing alone will not prevent hypernatraemic dehydration)(Hypernatraemic dehydration: excess sodium is not the cause)(Hypernatraemia in the first few days: a tragic case)(Systemic and cerebral blood flow)(Transcutaneous bilirubin measurement in newborn infants: evaluation of a new spectrophotometric method)(Hyponatraemia as a consequence of serial liquor punctures in preterm infants with a ventricular access device after posthaemorrhagic hydrocephalus)(Use of animal surfactant: should we seek consent?)(Intravenous propacetamol overdose in a term newborn)(Endotracheal tube fixation in neonates)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2003... If you have a burning desire to respond to a paper published in ADC or F&N, why not make use of our "rapid response" option? Log on to our website (www.archdischild.com), find the paper that interests you, click on "full text" and send your...