Healthy term and moderately preterm infants have similar cerebral oxygen saturation and cerebral blood flow volumes during early post-natal transition.

Aim: This pilot study evaluated changes in regional cerebral oxygen saturation and cerebral blood flow volume during the transitional period in healthy term and moderately preterm infants.

Methods: The cohort comprised 16 preterm infants and seven full-term infants with mean gestational ages of 34 and 39 weeks, respectively. Longitudinal measurements were conducted during the first three days after birth.

Effect of different assumptions for brain water content on absolute measures of cerebral oxygenation determined by frequency-domain near-infrared spectroscopy in preterm infants: an observational study.

Background: Brain-water content (BWC) decreases with maturation of the brain and potentially affects parameters of cerebral oxygenation determined by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Most commercially available devices do not take these maturational changes into account. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of different assumptions for BWC on parameters of cerebral oxygenation in preterm infants.

Staff and parents are discriminators for outcomes in neonatal intensive care units.

Aim: We investigated the associations between staff work characteristics, parents' experiences and a number of medical outcome measures.

Methods: This explorative multicentre study took place in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of five German university hospitals between 2009 and 2011. We assessed staff work characteristics by surveying 126 NICU nurses and 57 physicians and asked 214 parents about their relationships with staff.

Correlation between skin, bone, and cerebrospinal fluid layer thickness and optical coefficients measured by multidistance frequency-domain near-infrared spectroscopy in term and preterm infants.

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is increasingly used in neonatal intensive care. We investigated the impact of skin, bone, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) layer thickness in term and preterm infants on absorption-(μa) and/or reduced scattering coefficients (μs') measured by multidistance frequency-domain (FD)-NIRS. Transcranial ultrasound was performed to measure the layer thicknesses.