The Ages and Stages Questionnaire and Neurodevelopmental Impairment in Two-Year-Old Preterm-Born Children.

Objective: To test the ability of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, Third Edition (ASQ3) to help identify or exclude neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) in very preterm-born children at the corrected age of two.

Methods: We studied the test results of 224 children, born at <32 postmenstrual weeks, who had scores on ASQ3 and Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (BSIDIII) and neurological examination at 22-26 months' corrected age. We defined NDI as a score of <70 on the cognitive--or motor composite scale of BSIDIII, or impairment on neurological examination or audiovisual screening.

The bilirubin albumin ratio in the management of hyperbilirubinemia in preterm infants to improve neurodevelopmental outcome: a randomized controlled trial--BARTrial.

Background And Objective: High bilirubin/albumin (B/A) ratios increase the risk of bilirubin neurotoxicity. The B/A ratio may be a valuable measure, in addition to the total serum bilirubin (TSB), in the management of hyperbilirubinemia. We aimed to assess whether the additional use of B/A ratios in the management of hyperbilirubinemia in preterm infants improved neurodevelopmental outcome.

Midtrimester preterm prelabour rupture of membranes (PPROM): expectant management or amnioinfusion for improving perinatal outcomes (PPROMEXIL - III trial).

Background: Babies born after midtrimester preterm prelabour rupture of membranes (PPROM) are at risk to develop neonatal pulmonary hypoplasia. Perinatal mortality and morbidity after this complication is high. Oligohydramnios in the midtrimester following PPROM is considered to cause a delay in lung development.

Non-invasive markers for early diagnosis and determination of the severity of necrotizing enterocolitis.

Objectives: To improve diagnosis of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) by noninvasive markers representing gut wall integrity loss (I-FABP and claudin-3) and gut wall inflammation (calprotectin). Furthermore, the usefulness of I-FABP to predict NEC severity and to screen for NEC was evaluated.

Methods: Urinary I-FABP and claudin-3 concentrations and fecal calprotectin concentrations were measured in 35 consecutive neonates suspected of NEC at the moment of NEC suspicion.

Magnetic resonance proton spectroscopy and diffusion weighted imaging of chick embryo brain in ovo.

Metabolic compensatory mechanisms may partly account for the decreased vulnerability to hypoxia observed in the developing brain. We used proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and diffusion-weighted imaging to measure the cerebral concentrations of lactate and other metabolites, as well as the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of tissue water, before, during and after hypoxia in anaesthetised chick embryos in ovo. Reducing the inspired oxygen concentration to 8% for 40 min caused a significant rise in both mean (+/-S.