Pilot study of home phototherapy for neonatal jaundice monitored in maternity ward during the enforced Italy-wide COVID-19 national lockdown.

Unlabelled: In Italy, where neonatal jaundice treatment is required, it is largely carried out in hospitals. However, it is possible to safely administer home phototherapy (HPT). We report our pilot center's experience of HPT and its potential benefits during the COVID-19-enforced national lockdown.

Increase of Parkin and ATG5 plasmatic levels following perinatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Brain injury at birth is an important cause of neurological and behavioral disorders. Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a critical cerebral event occurring acutely or chronically at birth with high mortality and morbidity in newborns. Therapeutic strategies for the prevention of brain damage are still unknown, and the only medical intervention for newborns with moderate-to-severe HIE is therapeutic hypothermia (TH).

Factors affecting yawning frequencies in preterm neonates.

Yawning is a long neglected behavioral pattern, but it has recently gained an increasing interdisciplinary attention for its theoretical implications as well as for its potential use as a clinical marker, with particular regard to perinatal neurobehavioral assessment. The present study investigated the factors affecting yawning frequencies in hospitalized preterm neonates (N = 58), in order to distinguish the effects of hunger and sleep-related modulations and to examine the possible impact of demographic and clinical variables on yawning frequencies. Results showed that preterm neonates yawned more often before than after feeding, and this modulation was not explained by the amount of time spent in quiet sleep in the two conditions.

Calcium and lactate in the fetal-to-neonatal transition.

Objective: To explore the relationship between calcium and lactate in arterial cord blood of healthy term neonates in response to the stress of labor.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of consecutive, vaginal, term births in a community medical center (April 2029 to February 2020). Calcium and lactate were measured in cord blood gas analysis immediately after delivery.

Infant feeding initiation practices in the context of COVID-19 lockdown.

Objective: Limited information is available regarding barriers to breastfeeding during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Study Design: This study was designed as a non-concurrent case-control study on breastfeeding initiation practices, defined according to WHO, in women giving birth during lockdown, between March 8 and May 18, 2020, in the COVID-19 'hotspot' in Northeastern Italy (study group), with an antecedent puerperae-matched group (control group). Exclusive, complementary, and formula feeding practices were collected from maternal charts at hospital discharge, on the second day post-partum, when puerperae filled out the Edinburg Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS).

Building a Lung and Ovarian Cancer Data Warehouse.

Objectives: Despite the collection of vast amounts of data by the healthcare sector, effective decision-making in medical practice is still challenging. Data warehousing technology can be applied for the collection and management of clinical data from various sources to provide meaningful insights for physicians and administrators. Cancer data are extremely complicated and massive; hence, a clinical data warehouse system can provide insights into prevention, diagnosis and treatment processes through the use of online analytical processing tools for the analysis of multi-dimensional data at different granularity levels.

A semantic trajectory data warehouse for improving nursing productivity.

A Trajectory Data Warehouse is a central repository of large amount of data focusing on moving objects, which have been collected and integrated from multiple sources with spatial and temporal dimensions as the main metrics of analysis. By adding semantic-related contextual information, it is converted to a Semantic Trajectory Data Warehouse. It transforms raw trajectories to valuable information that can be utilized for decision-making purposes in ubiquitous applications.

Lung recruitment before surfactant administration in extremely preterm neonates with respiratory distress syndrome (IN-REC-SUR-E): a randomised, unblinded, controlled trial.

Background: The importance of lung recruitment before surfactant administration has been shown in animal studies. Well designed trials in preterm infants are absent. We aimed to examine whether the application of a recruitment manoeuvre just before surfactant administration, followed by rapid extubation (intubate-recruit-surfactant-extubate [IN-REC-SUR-E]), decreased the need for mechanical ventilation during the first 72 h of life compared with no recruitment manoeuvre (ie, intubate-surfactant-extubate [IN-SUR-E]).

Neuroprem: the Neuro-developmental outcome of very low birth weight infants in an Italian region.

Introduction: The survival of preterm babies has increased worldwide, but the risk of neuro-developmental disabilities remains high, which is of concern to both the public and professionals. The early identification of children at risk of neuro-developmental disabilities may increase access to intervention, potentially influencing the outcome.

Aims: Neuroprem is an area-based prospective cohort study on the neuro-developmental outcome of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants that aims to define severe functional disability at 2 years of age.

Melatonin as a master regulator of cell death and inflammation: molecular mechanisms and clinical implications for newborn care.

Melatonin, more commonly known as the sleep hormone, is mainly secreted by the pineal gland in dark conditions and regulates the circadian rhythm of the organism. Its intrinsic properties, including high cell permeability, the ability to easily cross both the blood-brain and placenta barriers, and its role as an endogenous reservoir of free radical scavengers (with indirect extra activities), confer it beneficial uses as an adjuvant in the biomedical field. Melatonin can exert its effects by acting through specific cellular receptors on the plasma membrane, similar to other hormones, or through receptor-independent mechanisms that involve complex molecular cross talk with other players.

Prevalence and characteristics of positional plagiocephaly in healthy full-term infants at 8-12 weeks of life.

Unlabelled: Positional plagiocephaly (PP) denotes flattening of the skull that occurs frequently in healthy infants. Aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of positional plagiocephaly and to identify the risk factors in a cohort of healthy infants in order to help prevention of PP. In a prospective design, all healthy full-term infants, ranging from 8 to 12 weeks of age, who presented at the public immunization clinic in Ferrara, were eligible for the study.

Double Interstitial Deletion of the Long Arm of Chromosome 6 in a Patient with Pierre Robin Sequence, Dysmorphisms, and Severe Developmental Delay.

Reported here is the case of a 1.8-year-old boy with a 9.6- Mb deletion in 6q13q14.

Expanding the clinical spectrum of recessive truncating mutations of to a Bohring-Opitz-like phenotype.

Background: Bohring-Opitz syndrome (BOS) is a rare genetic disorder characterised by a recognisable craniofacial appearance and a typical 'BOS' posture. BOS is caused by sporadic mutations of. However, several typical patients with BOS have no molecular diagnosis, suggesting clinical and genetic heterogeneity.

Universal Head Ultrasound Screening in Full-term Neonates: A Retrospective Analysis of 6771 Infants.

Background: Full-term neonates may have asymptomatic cranial injuries at birth and head ultrasound screening could be useful for early diagnosis. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and type of intracranial abnormalities and the usefulness of head ultrasound screening in these infants.

Methods: Head ultrasound screening was performed on all full-term neonates (gestational age between 37 and 42 weeks), born at Sant'Anna University Hospital of Ferrara, Italy, from June 1, 2008 through May 31, 2013.

Efficacy of a new technique - INtubate-RECruit-SURfactant-Extubate - "IN-REC-SUR-E" - in preterm neonates with respiratory distress syndrome: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Although beneficial in clinical practice, the INtubate-SURfactant-Extubate (IN-SUR-E) method is not successful in all preterm neonates with respiratory distress syndrome, with a reported failure rate ranging from 19 to 69 %. One of the possible mechanisms responsible for the unsuccessful IN-SUR-E method, requiring subsequent re-intubation and mechanical ventilation, is the inability of the preterm lung to achieve and maintain an "optimal" functional residual capacity. The importance of lung recruitment before surfactant administration has been demonstrated in animal studies showing that recruitment leads to a more homogeneous surfactant distribution within the lungs.

Corrigendum to "Two Mutations in Surfactant Protein C Gene Associated with Neonatal Respiratory Distress".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2015/591783.].

Two mutations in surfactant protein C gene associated with neonatal respiratory distress.

Multiple mutations of surfactant genes causing surfactant dysfunction have been described. Surfactant protein C (SP-C) deficiency is associated with variable clinical manifestations ranging from neonatal respiratory distress syndrome to lethal lung disease. We present an extremely low birth weight male infant with an unusual course of respiratory distress syndrome associated with two mutations in the SFTPC gene: C43-7G>A and 12T>A.

Universal cranial ultrasound screening in preterm infants with gestational age 33-36 weeks. A retrospective analysis of 724 newborns.

Background: Cranial ultrasonography is a useful tool to detect intracranial lesions in premature neonates at risk. Our primary aim was to determine the number of patients with abnormal cranial ultrasonography. Secondary aims were to evaluate the usefulness of universal cranial ultrasonography screening in moderately preterm infants.

Use of ketamine in a newborn with refractory status epilepticus: a case report.

Background: Brain malformations represent a major cause of refractory seizures. Standardized protocols to treat status epilepticus of newborn are not available in the literature.

Patient: We present a case report of use of ketamine administered to a late preterm with Pierre Robin sequence, lissencephaly, polymicrogyria, and severe epilepsy.

Universal neonatal screening for sickle cell disease and other haemoglobinopathies in Ferrara, Italy.

Background: Sickle cell disease is the commonest haemoglobinopathy in Africa, the Middle East and India. In recent years, its incidence has increased dramatically also in Europe and North America because of the high rate of migration of people from endemic areas. From January 2009 to January 2010 the number of foreign residents in the province of Ferrara (Italy) increased by 12.

Familial occurrence of multiple pterygium syndrome: expression in a heterozygote of the recessive form or variability of the dominant form?

We report on a case with apparently familial multiple pterygium syndrome (MPS). The proposita was a 3-year-old girl with classical symptoms of MPS. A careful clinical examination of the father disclosed the presence of few minor signs of the syndrome, including difficulty in opening the mouth widely, scoliosis, pectus excavatum, hands with slight cutaneous syndactyly, and bilateral single palmar creases.

Anencephaly: MRI findings and pathogenetic theories.

We describe the MRI appearances of an anencephalic newborn who survived for 13 h; particularities of this case are male gender and the absence of other associated malformations. Moreover, we discuss the pathogenetic theories of anencephaly, correlating MRI findings with embryological data. An exencephaly-anencephaly sequence due to amnion rupture is hypothesized.

Congenital heart defects: 15 years of experience of the Emilia-Romagna Registry (Italy).

Objectives: Collection and assessment of data from the Emilia-Romagna Region on the occurrence of congenital heart defects in order to identify an homogeneous group of patients for further aetiologic and genetic studies.

Materials And Methods: The present study is based on 1549 stillborn and live born babies affected by congenital heart defect out of 330,017 consecutive births (4.7 per 1000).

Temporal variability in birth prevalence of congenital heart defects as recorded by a general birth defects registry.

Objective: Our aim was to examine the temporal variability in congenital heart defect (CHD) birth prevalence from 1980 to 2000 in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Methods: The study population consisted of all infants, surveyed by the Emilia-Romagna birth defects registry (Indagine Malformazioni conpenite in Emilia-Romagna [IMER]), who were affected by CHDs. A simplified classification into "simple" and "complex " CHD was adopted.

[Congenital cardiopathy in a data-based population].

Altogether 429.139 consecutive births were surveyed during the eighteen years study period by the Emilia-Romagna Registry. Among these, 2147 newborns with congenital heart defects (CHD) (prevalence 5 per 1000) were detected within the first week of life.