Developmental Disability at School Age and Difficulty Obtaining Follow-up Data.

Background: The relationship of developmental disability rates with difficulty obtaining follow-up data is unclear. With this study, we aimed to determine if children who attended research follow-up assessments with more difficulty had more disability at school age, compared with those who attended with less difficulty, and to establish the relationship between follow-up and disability rates.

Methods: Two groups, comprising 219 consecutive survivors born at <28 weeks' gestation or at <1000 g birth weight in the state of Victoria, Australia, in 2005, and 218 term-born, normal birth weight controls were assessed at 8 years of age for neurodevelopmental disability (any of IQ <-1 SD, cerebral palsy, blindness, or deafness).

Changing Neurodevelopment at 8 Years in Children Born Extremely Preterm Since the 1990s.

Background And Objective: Survival of extremely preterm (EP; <28 weeks' gestation) infants has increased over the last 2 decades. Equivalent reductions in developmental morbidity in early childhood have not been consistently reported. The aim of this study was to determine trends in neurodevelopmental outcomes at 8 years of age of children born EP (22-27 completed weeks' gestation) over the past 2 decades.

Ventilation in Extremely Preterm Infants and Respiratory Function at 8 Years.

Background: Assisted ventilation for extremely preterm infants (<28 weeks of gestation) has become less invasive, but it is unclear whether such developments in care are associated with improvements in short-term or long-term lung function. We compared changes over time in the use of assisted ventilation and oxygen therapy during the newborn period and in lung function at 8 years of age in children whose birth was extremely premature.

Methods: We conducted longitudinal follow-up of all survivors of extremely preterm birth who were born in Victoria, Australia, in three periods - the years 1991 and 1992 (225 infants), 1997 (151 infants), and 2005 (170 infants).

Comparison of preterm and term equivalent age MRI for the evaluation of preterm brain injury.

Objective: To compare information obtained from preterm magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; 31-34 weeks) brain scan to that done at term equivalent age.

Study Design: Prospective observational study of premature infants with evidence or suspicion of parenchymal brain injury on cranial ultrasound. Brain injury on two scans scored using a scoring system and analyzed.

Clearance of infant vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium carriage after a neonatal inpatient outbreak.

A follow-up cohort study was undertaken to document clearance of fecal vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium carriage in 19 infants colonized during a hospital outbreak. By the conclusion of the 14-month study period, all participants had returned terminal negative fecal specimens, supporting the hypothesis that carriage is transient in this population.