Neuroimaging manifestations and genetic heterogeneity of Walker-Warburg syndrome in Saudi patients.

Background: Walker-Warburg syndrome (WWS), an autosomal recessive disease, is the most severe phenotype of congenital muscular dystrophies. Its diagnosis remains primarily clinical and radiological. Identification of its causative variants will assist genetic counseling.

Pattern of neonatal and postneonatal deaths over a decade (1995--2004) at a Military Hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Objective: To describe and monitor the causes of neonatal and postneonatal deaths in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) over a 10-year-period.

Methods: This is a descriptive study of all infants who died in the NICU from January 1995 until December 2004 at Riyadh Military Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Data were collected prospectively on all infants admitted to NICU.

Umbilical vein interleukin-6 levels in very low birth weight infants developing intraventricular hemorrhage.

To assess the relationship between perinatal infection/inflammation as reflected by umbilical vein interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels and the development of periventricular-intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants, we tested the hypothesis that VLBW infants who develop IVH have higher concentrations of IL-6 in an umbilical vein sample compared to infants without IVH. An inception cohort of 69 VLBW infants was followed from birth until discharge or death to determine the development of IVH by serial neuroultrasounds. Umbilical vein IL-6 levels were measured using commercially available ELISA kit (Endogen Laboratories, Woburn, MA) and compared in IVH and control cohorts.