Epileptic seizures, epilepsy and epileptic syndromes in newborns: a nosological approach to 94 new cases by the 2001 proposed diagnostic scheme for people with epileptic seizures and with epilepsy.

Purpose: To assess the advantages of the 2001 ILAE proposed diagnostic scheme for classification of newborns with epileptic seizures over the 1989 ILAE classification.

Method: Clinical features, seizure semiology and duration, neurological evaluation, ictal and interictal EEG, brain imaging and outcome at the end of the neonatal period (44 weeks post-conceptional age) of 94 newborns with EEG confirmed seizures were analyzed. The 2001 ILAE classification was applied where possible.

Blood withdrawal and infusion via umbilical catheters: effect on cerebral perfusion and influence of ibuprofen.

Withdrawal and infusion of blood via umbilical catheters can affect cerebral blood flow in preterm infants. We compared the effects on cerebral perfusion of 3 ml/kg blood withdrawal and infusion via umbilical arterial (UAC) and venous (UVC) catheters in 16 infants < or =32 weeks gestation, age <24 h, on mechanical ventilation. Near infrared spectroscopy was used to monitor changes in cerebral oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin, total cerebral hemoglobin (an index of cerebral blood volume; CBV) and HbD (an index of cerebral intravascular oxygenation).