Connatal listeriosis--a case report and the possibilities of microbiological diagnosis.

The third most frequent agent of perinatal bacterial meningitis is Listeria monocytogenes, in Hungary, its occurrence is, however, uncommon. This raises the possibility of diagnostical mistakes. A connatal listeriosis case validated microbiologically referred to in this report calls attention to Listeria, as a rare but relevant pathogen of neonatal infections.

[The combined effect of prenatal steroid prophylaxis, neonatal surfactant therapy and reduction of risk of complications from respiratory life support on survival rate of very low birthweight infants].

Introduction: Retrospective analysis on some factors possibly influencing survival rate of very low birthweight infants on respiratory life support has been carried out.

Aim: The aim was to find out about roles played by prenatal steroid prophylaxis, neonatal surfactant therapy and methods of reduction of complication risk emanating from respiratory life support in the outcome of treatment.

Method: The frequency rate of pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum and bronchopulmonary dysplasia was comparatively examined for all very low birthweight (less than 1500 g) neonates treated by respiratory life support in the I.

Human brain of preterm infants after hypoxic-ischaemic injuries: no evidence of a substantial role for apoptosis by using a fine-tuned ultrasound-guided neuropathological analysis.

Preterm birth may be associated with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) showing a well recognised number of patterns, including neuronal karyorrhexis/eosinophilia mostly at the diencephalon and brain stem and leukomalacia at the periventricular white matter. To investigate whether programmed cell death or apoptosis plays a role in HIE, we examined human brains of preterm infants. Brain tissue samples from 12 consecutive infants (24-34 weeks of gestation) were available at post-mortem examination (1998-2000) after approval of the Ethics Committee.