Publications by authors named "Chinnathambi Kamalarathnam"
Early and extended erythropoietin monotherapy after hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy: a multicentre double-blind pilot randomised controlled trial.
Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed
October 2024
Objective: To examine the feasibility of early and extended erythropoietin monotherapy after hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE).
Design: Double-blind pilot randomised controlled trial.
Setting: Eight neonatal units in South Asia.
Background: Although therapeutic hypothermia reduces death or disability after neonatal encephalopathy in high-income countries, its safety and efficacy in low-income and middle-income countries is unclear. We aimed to examine whether therapeutic hypothermia alongside optimal supportive intensive care reduces death or moderate or severe disability after neonatal encephalopathy in south Asia.
Methods: We did a multicountry open-label, randomised controlled trial in seven tertiary neonatal intensive care units in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
Article Synopsis
- A new diagnostic test using whole blood gene analysis may help identify encephalopathic babies at risk of poor neurodevelopmental outcomes within 18 months after birth.
- Researchers performed next-generation sequencing on blood samples from 45 encephalopathic infants, identifying 855 genes with significant differences between those with good and adverse outcomes.
- The findings suggest that transcriptomic profiling could enhance risk assessment in neonatal encephalopathy and reveal potential new treatments for protecting brain health.
Background: The successful promotion of facility births in low and middle-income countries has not always resulted in improved neonatal outcome. We evaluated key signal functions pertinent to Level II neonatal care to determine facility readiness to care for high risk/ small and sick newborns.
Method: Facility readiness for care of high risk/ small and sick babies was determined through self-evaluation using a pre-designed checklist to determine key signal functions pertinent to Level II neonatal care in selected referral hospitals in Uganda (10), Indonesia (4) and India (2) with focus on the Sub-Saharan country with greater challenges.
Background: In randomized trials in Guinea-Bissau, the Danish strain of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) reduces neonatal mortality, primarily by reducing deaths from pneumonia and sepsis. Because World Health Organization-prequalified BCG-Denmark was not available in India, we conducted 2 randomized trials to test whether BCG-Russia alone or with oral polio vaccine (OPV) has similar effects to BCG-Denmark.
Methods: We randomized neonates weighing <2000 g to a control group that was not vaccinated before 28 days of age or to receive either BCG-Russia alone (first trial) or BCG-Russia with OPV (second trial) soon after birth.