The objective of the study is to compare the efficacy and safety of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) and mini-percutaneous nephrolithotomy (MPCNL) in treating renal stones sizing 15-25 mm in infants <3 years. Forty-six infants with renal stones sizing 15-30 mm were treated by either ESWL (22 renal units in 22 infants) using ...

Background:Low birth weight is associated with deficits in nephron number in the infant kidney and increased risk of adulthood hypertension and renal dysfunction. Urinary biomarkers may be potential indicators of renal reserve, but little is known about the influence of gestational and postnatal age on the expression of urinary proteins. ...

Glomerular filtration rate is low in fetal and neonatal life. It increases after birth and reaches approximately 20 mL/min/1.73 m2 at 1 month of age in term and preterm neonates. Various methods have been used to measure glomerular filtration rate in neonates such as inulin clearance, creatinine clearance, and serum ...

Although nephrogenesis in a term infant is complete, there are a number of functional changes that occur in the kidney as the infant matures. Understanding these changes will aid in the evaluation of neonates to delineate what is normal development versus a pathophysiologic problem. In addition, as many drugs are ...

AIM: The purpose of this study was to compare the outcome of infants having antenatally detected urinary tract abnormalities (AUTAs) with respect to the presence of hydronephrosis in postnatal ultrasonography (US) examination. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between January 1999 and October 2009, 256 infants diagnosed with AUTAs were prospectively followed. Infants ...

PURPOSE: It is important to differentiate between those cases of prenatally detected hydronephrosis that are significant and those that are likely to resolve spontaneously. We evaluated the anteroposterior pelvic diameter of the renal pelvis postnatally in the supine and prone positions, and determined whether the difference between these 2 positions ...

BACKGROUND: Congenital abnormalities of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) are significant causes of morbidity. The aim of the study was to determine predictive factors of mortality in newborns with CAKUT. METHODS: All 29,653 consecutive newborns hospitalized in a tertiary neonatal unit between 1996 and 2006 were evaluated. The main ...

In pre- and post-natal period nutrition can influence the function of many organs, including the kidneys. Intrauterine growth restriction and low weight at birth are associated with reduced nephron number, a risk factor for later cardiovascular and renal diseases. The development of such adult diseases may be favored, in animals, ...

99mTc-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) scan is the golden standard for the diagnosis of acute pyelonephritis and renal scaring. We investigated the use of acute phase DMSA scan in infants presented promptly to the hospital because of the first episode of their febrile urinary tract infection (UTI). Ninety-eight infants with microbiologically confirmed ...

Abstract Objective: Creatinine (Scr) reflects to a certain extent glomerular filtration rate in neonates, but postnatal observations also depends on the technique used to quantify Scr [Jaffe colorimetry or enzymatic quantification]. Methods: In an attempt to quantify differences between these techniques, we compared postnatal Scr trends in two consecutive cohorts ...

The study was done to determine the renal function in preterm and term newborn infants in the neonatology unit of the Department of Paediatrics and Labour Ward of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) during the period of February 2002 to February 2003. Sixty ...

Background. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) has progressively acquired popularity as being the gold standard treatment for upper urinary tract lithiasis in infants since 1980. Our aim was to evaluate the outcome of ESWL for kidney stones and the use of double-J stent in infants. Material and Methods. A prospective ...

OBJECTIVE: To compare neonatal outcome between children born after vitrified versus fresh single-embryo transfer (SET). STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective, single-centre cohort study of 6623 delivered singletons following 29,944 single-embryo transfers. Patients underwent minimal ovarian stimulation/natural cycle IVF followed by SET of fresh or vitrified-warmed (using Cryotop, Kitazato) cleavage-stage embryos or blastocysts. ...

To calculate cost savings to the Australian federal and state governments from the reduction in twin and triplet birth rates for infants conceived by assisted reproductive technology (ART) since 2002, and to determine the number of ART treatment programs theoretically funded by means of these savings. Costing model using data ...

Auditory perception and learning take place during the third trimester of gestation. Fetuses and newborns who lack typical auditory experience can go on to develop typical socioemotional attachment and language, given a supportive environment. For hospitalized preterm infants in developmentally sensitive neonatal intensive care units, detrimental effects of deviant early ...

: Singleton neonates born after in vitro fertilization (IVF) are at increased risk for low birth weight, preterm delivery, or both. We sought to assess whether the alteration of the peri-implantation maternal environment resulting from ovarian stimulation may contribute to increased risk of low birth weight in IVF births. : ...

Mother-infant relationship has always interested researchers worldwide. This paper reviews the development of the concept of mother infant bonding through the years.

Asymmetric sibling competition arises when siblings with different competitive abilities share a limited resource. Such competition occurs in species with postnatal parental care and may also occur when mothers provision embryos between fertilization and birth (matrotrophy). We hypothesized that the combination of matrotrophy and the simultaneous provisioning of embryos in ...

The recent application of neuroimaging techniques in the field of human cognitive development is providing the practical basis for researchers to face speculative queries that had been impossible to address before enabling them to respectively describe "how the brain is" and "how the brain works" at birth or even before. ...

The Report summarizes the outcome of a recent informal consultation convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009 pursuant to the 1995 resolution of the World Health Assembly (WHA) urging Member States to promote programs for early hearing detection in babies and infants. The consultation was geared towards reaching ...

Background Infantile haemangiomas are benign vascular neoplasms that occur frequently in premature infants. The authors hypothesised that in addition to gestational age and birth weight, erythropoietin therapy may influence the incidence of these soft tissue tumours in preterm infants. Methods 2563 infants born prematurely and admitted to the Division of ...

Yelland LN, Salter AB, Ryan P, Makrides M. Analysis of binary outcomes from randomised trials including multiple births: when should clustering be taken into account? Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 2011; 25: 283-297. Randomised trials involving infants from both single and multiple births present unique statistical challenges. A range of methods ...

Objectives. To determine the factors influencing length of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stay among premature infants born after preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) with 24-34 weeks of gestation. Methods. Characteristic parameters of the pregnant women with PPROM and their premature infants were analyzed retrospectively using univariate and multivariate analysis. Results. The ...

Cardio-respiratory interactions are weak at the earliest stages of human development, suggesting that assessment of their presence and integrity may be an important indicator of development in infants. Despite the valuable research devoted to infant development, there is still a need for specifically targeted standards and methods to assess cardiopulmonary ...

Infants who receive prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding grow more slowly during the first year of life than those who do not. However, infant feeding and growth are dynamic processes in which feeding may affect growth, and prior growth and size may also influence subsequent feeding decisions. The authors carried out ...

Our aim was to investigate whether there is a season-of-birth effect in anorexia nervosa. In a meta-analysis, we compared the distribution of anorexia births (n = 1293) from four independent UK cohorts to that of the general UK population (n = 21 914 037), using both the Walter & Elwood ...

Please cite this paper as: Conde-Agudelo A, Papageorghiou A, Kennedy S, Villar J. Novel biomarkers for the prediction of the spontaneous preterm birth phenotype: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BJOG 2011; DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-0528.2011.02923.x. Background  Being able to predict preterm birth is important, as it may allow a high-risk population to ...

BACKGROUND: An increasing proportion of infants are born preterm, and their survival has improved. Therefore, their long-term sequelae are of increasing public health importance. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review covering a 30 year period (1980-2009). A random effects meta-analysis provided a pooled estimate of the difference in IQ score ...

PURPOSE: To assess the value of serum procalcitonin (PCT) for the differentiation between patients with and without neonatal sepsis. METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library for studies evaluating PCT in neonatal sepsis. PCT had to be measured in neonatal blood samples, at the initial presentation of ...

To estimate if cerclage prevents preterm birth and perinatal mortality and morbidity in women with previous preterm birth, singleton gestation, and short cervical length in a meta-analysis of randomized trials. MEDLINE, PUBMED, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were searched using the terms "cerclage," "short cervix," "ultrasound," and "randomized trial." We ...

The placenta weight/birthweight (PW/BW) ratio has been shown to be associated with certain long-term fetal outcomes; however, its association with short-term outcomes has not received much attention. Our aim was to assess the correlation between the PW/BW ratio and short-term adverse obstetrics outcomes in full-term, appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) newborns. Retrospective cohort ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of antenatal corticosteroid (ACS) to improve neonatal outcomes for infants born at <24 weeks of gestation. STUDY DESIGN: We performed a retrospective analysis of 11 607 infants born at 22 to 33 weeks of gestation between 2003 and 2007 from the Neonatal Research Network of ...

OBJECTIVE: To compare the neurodevelopmental outcomes, at 30-42 months adjusted age, between infants exposed to antenatal indomethacin and those unexposed to antenatal indomethacin. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study. The study cohort consisted of all nonanomalous infants with birth weight ≤ 1250 g and/or gestational age ≤ 28 wks born between 2000 and 2003, ...

INTRODUCTION: Seasonal variation in the incidence of hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (HPS) has been long debated. The goal of this study was to determine if seasonal variation exists in the incidence of pyloric stenosis. METHODS: A population-based cohort consisted of all infants in the province of Ontario, Canada with HPS from ...

BACKGROUND: Signals originating from both maternal and fetal compartments participate in the preterm labor process. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether cord blood immunoproteins predict spontaneous preterm labor. METHODS: Cord blood from 125 very preterm (gestational age <32weeks) singleton infants and 33 term infants was collected after birth and analyzed for 107 ...

Study aim: To describe general movement in extremely premature infants and examine correlations with risk factors for antenatal, perinatal, and postnatal morbidity. Study type: Prospective, single-center study. Nineteen patients were followed up. Methodology: The infants' general movement was analyzed using video recordings. Qualitative and quantitative assessments were performed during the ...

Background: Since the first successful report of surfactant replacement therapy (SRT) in infants with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), numerous randomized clinical trials have shown that SRT reduces mortality and morbidity in RDS. Surfactant is now a standard therapy for RDS. However, the use of SRT in the developing world has ...

Please cite this paper as: Huusom L, Secher N, Pryds O, Whitfield K, Gluud C, Brok J. Antenatal magnesium sulphate may prevent cerebral palsy in preterm infants-but are we convinced? Evaluation of an apparently conclusive meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis. BJOG 2011;118:1-5.

OBJECTIVE: To identify independent prognostic indicators and design a predictive scoring system for neurodevelopmental outcome for term infants who experienced clinical neonatal seizures. Study Design: Retrospective analysis of 120 term infants who experienced clinical neonatal seizures between July 1991 and June 2007 in a single academic pediatric neurology practice. Logistic ...

Speech scientists have long proposed that formant exaggeration in infant-directed speech plays an important role in language acquisition. This event-related potential (ERP) study investigated neural coding of formant-exaggerated speech in 6-12-month-old infants. Two synthetic /i/ vowels were presented in alternating blocks to test the effects of formant exaggeration. ERP waveform ...

This study was performed to assess the neurological status of high-risk infants by "general movements" (GMs) method and to compare it with the findings of standard clinical neurological examination and neuroimaging findings during the early rehabilitation period. Neurodevelopmental examination was performed by a neonatologist at the corrected ages of 40 ...

Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is a major cause of respiratory tract illness in young children and causes annual outbreaks in winter and spring seasons. We evaluated the subgroups of HMPV that caused annual outbreaks and its seasonal occurrence during a 21-year period. Real-time PCR was used for detection of HMPV in ...

Research suggests a relationship between birth weight and season of birth, but findings vary across countries and underlying factors are not well understood. We examine the seasonality of birth weight and explore alternative hypotheses for its etiology-exposure to environmental factors and varying socioeconomic composition of mothers-in Chile. Birth weight of ...

The increasing prevalence of heart disease and diabetes among aging populations in low and middle income countries leads to questions regarding the degree to which endogenous early life exposures (exposures in utero) are important determinants of these health conditions. We devised a test using infant mortality (IMR) to verify if ...

Seasonal aggregation and the monthly rate of neonatal transient hyperthyrotropinemia (THT) were assessed. From November 1998 to April 2005, neonates of gestational age ≥37 wks, birth weight 2500-4000 g, birth length 45-55 cm, and 1st min Apgar score >3, who had thyrotropin (TSH) ≥20 mU/L in their cord dried-blood specimen, but ...

Reduction in the variability of piglet birth weight within litter and increased piglet survival are key objective in schemes aiming to improve sow prolificacy. In previous studies, variation in birth weight was described by the sample standard deviation of birth weights within one litter, and the genetic impact has been ...

The annual reproductive cycle of most seal species is characterized by a tight synchrony of births. Typically, timing of birth shows little inter-annual variation. Here, however we show that harbour seals Phoca vitulina from the Wadden Sea (southeast North Sea) have shortened their yearly cycle, moving parturition to earlier dates ...

OBJECTIVE: Paternal characteristics have never been considered in the relation between maternal schizophrenia and adverse pregnancy outcomes. The aim of our study was to consider different paternal ages while investigating the relation between maternal schizophrenia and low birth weight (LBW), using a nationwide population-based dataset. METHOD: Our study used data ...

A total of 6231 fecal specimens collected from infants and children with gastroenteritis in 7 different regions of Japan during 1995 to 2007 were examined for norovirus. Norovirus was detected in 779 patients (12.5%) and norovirus activity peak in the winter season (November to January) during 1995 to 2007. During ...

This study uses micro-level information on the live births registered in Greece for 2006 to assess differentials in the propensity to have a male offspring between natives and immigrants. The sex ratio at birth for the whole population is 106.3 but it is considerably higher among immigrants (110.9) than among ...