Docosahexaenoic acid supplementation of preterm infants and parent-reported symptoms of allergic disease at 7 years corrected age: follow-up of a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) supplementation in the prenatal period is associated with a reduction in the incidence of some symptoms of allergic disease. Infants born preterm are at increased risk of allergic disease, but it is unknown if DHA supplementation reduces the risk of childhood allergies.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine if supplementation of infants born at <33 wk gestation with high-DHA compared with standard-DHA enteral feeds decreases the incidence and severity of parent-reported allergic disease symptoms at a corrected age (CA) of 7 y.

Haemophilus influenzae: a potent perinatal pathogen disproportionately isolated from Indigenous women and their neonates.

Background: Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) bacteraemia in pregnant women is strongly associated with pregnancy loss and preterm delivery. However, the clinical significance of isolation of NTHi from nonsterile sites is unknown.

Aims: To examine the hypothesis that isolation of NTHi from any specimen is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes and to investigate the impression that NTHi is disproportionately isolated from indigenous women and their neonates.

Neurodevelopmental outcomes at 7 years' corrected age in preterm infants who were fed high-dose docosahexaenoic acid to term equivalent: a follow-up of a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To determine if improvements in cognitive outcome detected at 18 months' corrected age (CA) in infants born <33 weeks' gestation receiving a high-docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) compared with standard-DHA diet were sustained in early childhood.

Design: Follow-up of a multicentre randomised controlled trial. Randomisation was stratified for sex, birth weight (<1250 vs ≥1250 g) and hospital.

Dysphonia in preterm children: assessing incidence and response to treatment.

Background: Mild dysphonia in childhood is surprisingly common, yet moderate to severe dysphonia is rare. The latter has been associated with complex medical conditions and congenital abnormalities. Intubation injury has also been documented as a cause of childhood dysphonia.

Small for gestational age preterm infants and relationship of abnormal umbilical artery Doppler blood flow to perinatal mortality and neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Aim: To determine the outcomes of preterm small for gestational age (SGA) infants with abnormal umbilical artery (UA) Doppler studies.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of SGA singleton infants delivered between 24 and 32 weeks gestation at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Perth, who had UA Doppler studies performed within seven days of birth. Main outcomes assessed were perinatal mortality and morbidity, and neurodevelopmental outcomes at >or= 1 year of age.

The long term neurologic outcome of children from pregnancies complicated by twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.

Objective: To assess long term outcomes of children from pregnancies complicated by twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.

Design: Comparison of children from pregnancies with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome in Western Australia with a contemporaneous regional comparison cohort of preterm and term infants studied using an identical assessment procedure.

Population And Setting: All infants aged > or =18 months were identified from a geographically based longitudinal cohort of monochorionic twin pregnancies with an antenatal diagnosis of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome conducted prospectively since 1992.

Repeated antenatal corticosteroids: effects on cerebral palsy and childhood behavior.

Objective: This study was undertaken to determine the effects of repeated courses of antenatal corticosteroids on childhood behavior and disabilities, including cognitive delay and cerebral palsy.

Study Design: Nonrandomized regional cohort of 541 very preterm infants born in Western Australia from singleton pregnancies and alive at 3 years were included in the study.

Main Outcome Measures: Physical, cognitive, and psychological assessments up to 6 years.