Pre-natal exposure to NO and PM and newborn lung function: An approach based on repeated personal exposure measurements.

Context: While strong evidence supports adverse effects of pre-natal air pollution on child's lung function, previous studies rarely considered fine particulate matter (PM) or the potential role of offspring sex and no study examined the effects of pre-natal PM on the lung function of the newborn.

Aim: We examined overall and sex-specific associations of personal pre-natal exposure to PM and nitrogen (NO) with newborn lung function measurements.

Methods: This study relied on 391 mother-child pairs from the French SEPAGES cohort.

Comparison of a Barcode-Based Smartphone Application to a Questionnaire to Assess the Use of Cleaning Products at Home and Their Association with Asthma Symptoms.

Household disinfectant and cleaning products (HDCPs) assessment is challenging in epidemiological research. We hypothesized that a newly-developed smartphone application was more objective than questionnaires in assessing HDCPs. Therefore, we aimed to compare both methods, in terms of exposure assessments and respiratory health effects estimates.

Deciphering the Impact of Early-Life Exposures to Highly Variable Environmental Factors on Foetal and Child Health: Design of SEPAGES Couple-Child Cohort.

In humans, studies based on Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) concept and targeting short half-lived chemicals, including many endocrine disruptors, generally assessed exposures from spot biospecimens. Effects of early-life exposure to atmospheric pollutants were reported, based on outdoor air pollution levels. For both exposure families, exposure misclassification is expected from these designs: for non-persistent chemicals, because a spot biospecimen is unlikely to capture exposure over windows longer than a few days; for air pollutants, because indoor levels are ignored.

Prevalence and associated factors of minor neuromotor dysfunctions at age 5 years in prematurely born children: the EPIPAGE Study.

Objectives: To assess the frequency of minor neuromotor dysfunctions (MNDs) at age 5 years according to gestational age, to test their association with behavioral and learning difficulties, and to find determining neonatal factors.

Design: Prospective population-based cohort study of children born in 1997 and followed up from birth to age 5 years.

Setting: All maternity wards in 9 regions of France.

White matter damage and intraventricular hemorrhage in very preterm infants: the EPIPAGE study.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of cranial ultrasound abnormalities in very preterm infants as a function of gestational age, plurality, intrauterine growth restriction, and death before discharge.

Study Design: A prospective, population-based cohort of 2667 infants born between 22 and 32 weeks of gestation in 1997 in nine regions of France, transferred to a neonatal intensive care unit, for whom at least one cranial ultrasound scan was available.

Results: The frequencies of white matter damage (WMD), major WMD, cystic periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), periventricular parenchymal hemorrhagic involvement, and intraventricular hemorrhage with ventricular dilatation were 21%, 8%, 5%, 3%, and 3%, respectively.

Sex-specific impact of congenital hypothyroidism due to thyroid dysgenesis on skeletal maturation in term newborns.

Newborns with severe congenital hypothyroidism (often defined by the absence of knee epiphyses at diagnosis) are still at risk of loss of intellectual potential despite early treatment. Although there is no significant sexual dimorphism in the age at appearance and size of the knee epiphyses in normal newborns, it was our clinical impression that these epiphyses were more often absent in hypothyroid newborn males than in affected females. Using the large French database of congenital hypothyroidism, we studied the presence or absence of knee epiphyses at diagnosis, as well as the length of gestation and the birth weight of 1827 term newborns with athyreosis or ectopic thyroid.