Serum and urinary NGAL in septic newborns.

Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is postulated to be a potentially new and highly specific/sensitive marker of acute kidney injury (AKI). The aim of this study was to assess the impact of inflammation on serum and urine NGAL in newborns that were treated due to infection. We determined serum and urine NGAL concentrations in 73 infants (51 with sepsis; 22 with severe sepsis) admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in the first month of life, for three consecutive days during the course of treatment for infection.

Is serum cystatin C a better marker of kidney function than serum creatinine in septic newborns?

Introduction: Several studies have claimed that the estimation of serum cystatin C could be a better marker of kidney excretory function than serum creatinine. However, its role in the diagnosis of reduced kidney function was not unquestionably confirmed. The aim of this study was to analyze the concentrations of serum cystatin C in neonates with sepsis.

Beyond purely ethical understanding of responsibility: a phenomenological approach.

Background: The assumption that moral responsibility is a constitutive feature of the human person could almost be considered as the raison d'être of ethics and consequently of bioethics. In fact, the concept of"common morality", which is becoming ever more popular within the mainstream of bioethics, assumes that certain, even if elementary, experience of moral responsibility (and understanding of it) is shared by all the people of every cultural (moral) tradition. Although the phenomenon of (moral) responsibility is seen as a moral question, its ultimate explanation needs reflection which goes beyond purely ethical considerations.

[Physicians' attitudes toward pain in newborn infants. Preliminary results of a cross-sectional national survey].

Background: Since 1980s, the problem of pain experienced by newborns has met with increasing interest both in research work and in clinical practice. It is worth noting that significant progress in neurophysiologic basis of pain and in diagnostic and therapeutic methods have occurred during that time.

Aim: This study primarily aims at describing opinions of the doctors who work in the neonatal wards and neonatal intensive care units in Poland regarding the management of pain in newborns.