Over the last decade, it has become increasingly apparent that the cause of preterm birth is multifactorial, involving both genetic and environmental factors. With the development of new technologies capable of probing the genome, exciting possibilities now present themselves to gain new insight into the mechanisms leading to preterm birth. ...

Pregnancy outcomes in the United States and other developed countries are considerably better than those in many developing countries. However, adverse pregnancy outcomes are generally more common in the United States than in other developed countries. Low-birth-weight infants, born after a preterm birth or secondary to intrauterine growth restriction, account ...

The links between preterm birth, low birth weight, and adult vascular/metabolic morbidity remain unclear. Genetic susceptibility of babies related to these three conditions might contribute to this long-term association. We tested whether the Pro12Ala polymorphism of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG) gene could play a role in birth weight ...

OBJECTIVE: We examined the hypothesis that black race independent of other factors increases the risk for extreme preterm birth and its frequency of recurrence at a similar gestational age. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a population-based cohort study using the Missouri Department of Health's maternally linked database of all births in ...

OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to assess the effect of maternal periodontal disease on preterm delivery and/or birth of low-weight infants. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a meta-analytic review of 5 medical databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS, BIOSIS and PASCAL) for human observational studies linking preterm delivery and/or birth of low-weight infants ...

OBJECTIVES: We wished to determine prescribing practices of obstetricians in Canada regarding tocolytics, antenatal corticosteroids, and progesterone for women at increased risk of preterm labour and birth, and to determine whether these practices changed between 1997-98 and 2004. METHODS: Two cross-sectional surveys of Canadian obstetricians were conducted. The initial survey ...

The purpose of this study was to examine how vaginal douching may influence risk of preterm birth. We conducted a hybrid cohort study on risk factors for preterm birth. African American women who resided in Baltimore City, Maryland, were enrolled prenatally if they received prenatal care at 1 of 4 ...

During the perinatal period the development of the IgH chain CDR3 (CDR-H3) repertoire of IgM transcripts is maturity-dependent and not influenced by premature exposure to Ag. To study whether maturity-dependent restrictions also predominate in the perinatal IgG repertoire we compared 1000 IgG transcripts from cord blood and venous blood of ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The increased use of salivary cortisol as a biomarker of stress and/or diurnal rhythms has facilitated research of Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA)function. Saliva collection remains problematic with preterm infants. The twofold purpose of this study is to 1) establish validity of the filter paper method for saliva collection and ...

Parturition is composed of five separate but integrated physiological events: fetal membrane rupture, cervical dilatation, myometrial contractility, placental separation, and uterine involution. Prostaglandins (PGs) have central roles in each of these events, but the most studied is myometrial contraction. Elevated uterine PGs or the enhanced sensitivity of the myometrium to ...

Recent studies have reported links between external physical factors and human homeostasis. OBJECTIVE: to determine whether the monthly values of specific physical environmental factors are associated with the monthly number of preterm births in a major medical center in Israel. METHODS: The sample included 1006 infants weighing less than 1500g ...

Preterm birth remains a major cause of perinatal mortality and long term handicap in surviving infants. This is one of the most important clinical problems in Europe and across the world. While some preterm births are iatrogenic, associated with severe complications of pregnancy (e.g. hypertensive disorders, antepartum haemorrhage, infection), or ...

OBJECTIVE: Free radical production is increased by the administration of total parenteral nutrition (TPN) and may be linked to its adverse effects. Some of the complications of TPN can be ameliorated by partial enteral feeding. In the present study, we investigated plasma nitrate/nitrite (NO(2)/NO(3)) levels in newborns under parenteral and ...

Prematurity represents one of the risk factors of newborns' mortality, morbidity and derangements of long-term neurological development. With the increase of number of preterm newborns, problems with subsequent neurological development have also increased. Preterm population deserves great interest and a lot of investigations have been carried out in order to ...

The high prevalence, increasing frequency, and adverse outcomes for mothers and infants of preterm birth have led to heightened awareness of this public health concern. The causes of preterm birth are likely to be multifactorial, with genetic, infectious, nutritional, behavioral, and other environmental contributors. Because of important differences in the ...

The development of cerebral cortex includes highly organized, elaborate and long-lasting series of events, which do not come to an end by the time of birth. Indeed, many developmental events continue after the 40th postconceptual week resulting in a long morphological, behavioral and cognitive development of children. Premature birth causes ...

OBJECTIVE: We examined the relationship between maternal low birth weight and preterm delivery risk. METHODS: Information concerning maternal birth weight was collected during in-person interviews. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Preterm delivery cases were studied in aggregate, in subgroups (spontaneous ...

After birth, continuous transplacental transfer of glucose is interrupted. Neonates have to provide brain and vital organs with sufficient glucose. In term newborn infants, this is accomplished through well-coordinated hormonal and metabolic adaptive changes. During the first week of life, preterm infants are at high risk of abnormal glucose homeostasis. ...

Preterm labour continues to be a major contributor to neonatal and infant morbidity. Recent data from the USA indicate that the number of preterm deliveries (including those associated with preterm labour) has risen in the last 20 years by 30%. This increase is despite considerable efforts to introduce new therapies ...

OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to test the hypothesis that the level of the delivery hospital affects 1-year mortality of very preterm infants in Finland. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This retrospective national medical birth-register study included 2291 very preterm infants (gestational age of < 32 weeks at birth or birth weight of ...

OBJECTIVE: We determined the effect of preterm delivery on the course of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in infants born to mothers participating in a methadone maintenance program. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective cohort study was conducted in which infant and maternal data were collected from the medical records of 53 preterm ...

A literature review was performed on the effect of fish oil on preterm birth in observational and randomized studies. The only weak effect on preterm birth found in meta-analyses could be caused by the low compliance, and the fact that many women stop supplementation before term together with a fast ...

The effect of individual pollutants and the period(s) during pregnancy when pollutant levels are likely to have most impact on preterm birth is not clear. We evaluated the effect of prenatal exposure to six common urban air pollutants in the Sydney metropolitan area on preterm birth. We obtained information on ...

Preterm prelabour rupture of the membranes (PPROM) is an important clinical problem and a dilemma for the gynaecologist. On the one hand, awaiting spontaneous labour increases the probability of infectious disease for both mother and child, whereas on the other hand induction of labour leads to preterm birth with an ...

OBJECTIVE(S): To evaluate whether a uterus with a small septum (arcuate uterus or class VI according to the American Fertility Society (AFS) classification) behaves similarly to a uterus with a larger septum (septate or subseptate uterus or AFS class V). STUDY DESIGN: Observational study included 826 singleton deliveries to 730 ...

The very young preterm neonate has multiple immune deficiencies which may increase his or her vulnerability to infection. Secretory Immunoglobulin A (SIgA) plays an important role in the protection of epithelial surfaces exposed to the external environment; nevertheless controversy exists with regards to the ontogeny of SIgA in newborns and ...

Preterm birth remains the leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality and is likely the result of interactions between specific genes and the maternal or fetal environment. The strong familial clustering of disease with documented increased risks in patients with a personal or family history of preterm birth and the ...

Preterm birth remains one of the serious problems in perinatal medicine and is associated with an increased risk of neonatal complications and long-term morbidity. Although each day that delivery is delayed between 22 and 28 weeks of gestation increases survival by 3%, since most spontaneous preterm labour occurs between 28 ...

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between labor (preterm and term) and umbilical blood serum regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES) and melanoma growth stimulatory activity/growth-related oncogene-a (MSGA/GRO-alpha) concentration, and to determine whether early sepsis and pneumonia are associated with changes ...

Prematurity and low birth weight are important determinants of neonatal morbidity and mortality. A rising trend of preterm births is caused by an increase in the birth rate of near-term infants. Near-term infants are defined as infants of 34 to 36 6/7 weeks gestation. It is dangerous to assume that ...

Preterm birth (<37 weeks) complicates 12.5% of all deliveries in the USA, and remains the leading cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity, accounting for as many as 75% of perinatal deaths. Despite the recent temporal increase in preterm birth, efforts to understand the problem of prematurity have met with little ...

AIM: To determine the rate of rooming-in among preterm infants born in a tertiary hospital. METHODS: We reviewed the records of all preterm infants born at our hospital during a 5-y period, 2000 to 2004. RESULTS: Of the 18 953 neonates born at our institution during this time, 1356 (7.2%) ...

The preterm birth rate (births before 37 completed weeks of gestation) has been increasing in the United States, largely driven by an increase in infants delivered between 34 and 36 weeks, often called near-term, but referred to as late preterm in this article. In 2004, the preterm birth rate was ...

At all gestational ages, the risks of continuing a pregnancy must be carefully balanced against the risks of delivery and the associates risk of prematurity. This concept is of increasing importance in late preterm pregnancy when medical or obstetric complications frequently warrant delivery and the risk of prematurity persists. Given ...

It is universally accepted that acute inflammation is responsible for a substantial fraction of preterm births, particularly early cases. Much of this inflammation is caused by intrauterine infection. There is also evidence that infection and perhaps inflammation remote from the genitourinary tract can trigger preterm labour. Several studies have suggested ...

AIM: To explore risk factors that are associated with preterm birth and full-term small-for-gestational-age (SGA) birth for a Pacific population. METHODS: Data were gathered from the Pacific Islands Families Study. Mothers of a cohort of 1398 Pacific infants born in South Auckland, New Zealand during 2000 were interviewed when their ...

Much of the neonatal nutrition literature has focused on the management of very low birth weight infants, a group of infants usually less than 33 weeks gestation. Much less attention has been paid to nutritional management issues in preterm infants at higher gestations. This article reviews nutritional issues that exist ...

Late preterm gestation is an important risk factor for the development of severe neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and kernicterus. An exaggerated hepatic immaturity contributes to the greater prevalence, severity, and duration of neonatal jaundice in late preterm infants. Breast milk feeding is almost uniformly present and large for gestational age status, male ...

The purpose of this debate is to argue the merits of whether the availability of 24-hour transvaginal ultrasound service in every unit will help predict and, subsequently, prevent preterm birth. Any new test introduced will need to fulfil certain criteria. It must be acceptable in terms of risk, cost and ...

Preterm birth is associated with immature digestive function that may require the use of total parenteral nutrition and special oral feeding regimens. Little is known about the responses to oral food in the preterm neonate and how enteral nutrients affect the immature gastrointestinal tract (GIT). In vivo studies are difficult ...

Due to ever-improving medical technology over the course of the last century, the limit of viability has been lowered from around 32 weeks of gestation, first to 28 weeks and, in recent decades, to as low as less than 24 weeks. Long-term follow-up studies (Project on Preterm and Small-for-Gestational-Age Infants, ...

Multiple pregnancies currently account for 3% of all births in the United States but are disproportionately responsible for larger rates of prematurity and significant neonatal morbidity. The mean birth age for most multi-fetal pregnancies occurs during the late preterm period when both spontaneous preterm labor and iatrogenic premature birth because ...

The number of late preterm newborns (gestational age 34 to 36 weeks) is increasing in the United States and Canada. The appearance of these newborns may give a false sense of security about their well-being to practitioners and parents alike. Neonatology literature has begun to address this issue; however, there ...

OBJECTIVES: Preterm infants have higher rates of cognitive and behavioral difficulties at school age than their term-born peers. We hypothesized that neurobehavior at term would be different in very preterm infants compared with term infants and that perinatal exposures would be associated with these alterations in neurobehavior. PATIENTS AND METHODS: ...

OBJECTIVES: The objective of our study was to determine whether there were combined effects of smoking, alcohol, and illicit drug use during pregnancy on the frequency of preterm births, and if so, the magnitude of the association after adjusting for confounding factors. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of ...

BACKGROUND: Maternal periodontal disease has been associated with an increased risk of preterm birth and low birth weight. We studied the effect of nonsurgical periodontal treatment on preterm birth. METHODS: We randomly assigned women between 13 and 17 weeks of gestation to undergo scaling and root planing either before 21 ...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Amplitude-integrated electroencephalogram (aEEG) is becoming more common in NICUs for monitoring infants after perinatal asphyxia. We used aEEGs for preterm infants, and analysed the influence of sedation and maturation on their aEEG, focusing on continuous activity. METHODS: Weekly or biweekly aEEGs were performed in preterm infants and ...

Our objective was to evaluate the association between clinical chorioamnionitis following preterm pre-labour rupture of membranes (PPROM) and adverse neonatal outcome. We compared retrospectively, adverse neonatal outcome of singleton pregnancies with documented PPROM who developed chorioamnionitis (cases) with those who did not (controls). Our result showed that poor neonatal outcome ...

OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to determine whether the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RN) variable number tandem repeat polymorphism is associated with preterm birth. STUDY DESIGN: A case-control study was performed. Cases (n = 95) delivered before 37 weeks after preterm labor (PTL) or preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) and ...

AIM: To examine brainstem auditory function in preterm infants after perinatal hypoxia-ischaemia (HI). METHODS: Brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) was studied at 37-42 wk postconceptional age in preterm infants who suffered perinatal HI, and were compared with those in preterm and term infants without any major perinatal problems. RESULTS: None ...