Neonatal neurological examination in well newborn term Ugandan infants.

Background: Newborn neurological examinations have mostly been developed in high-resource settings with cohorts comprising predominantly white Caucasian infants. No comparison has been made with different populations.

Aims: To (i) establish the range of neurological findings in apparently well newborn term Ugandan infants, (ii) compare these findings to published data for equivalent term UK infants and (iii) correlate the neurological findings with perinatal characteristics and cranial ultrasound (cUS) imaging.

WITHDRAWN: Surgical versus non-surgical management of pleural empyema.

Background: Pleural empyema is a collection of pus between the lungs and the chest wall. There is debate about treatment options with the advent of both fibrinolytic enzymes to facilitate tube drainage and less invasive video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS).

Objectives: To determine which was more effective: surgical (using thoracoscopy or thoracotomy) or non-surgical techniques (thoracocentesis, chest tube drainage); and to establish whether there was an optimum time for intervention.

Surgical versus non-surgical management of pleural empyema.

Background: Pleural empyema is a collection of pus between the lungs and the chest wall. There is debate about treatment options with the advent of both fibrinolytic enzymes to facilitate tube drainage and less invasive video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS).

Objectives: To determine which was more effective: surgical (using thoracoscopy or thoracotomy) or non-surgical techniques (thoracocentesis, chest tube drainage); and to establish whether there was an optimum time for intervention.

Circulating hematopoietic progenitor cells in first trimester fetal blood.

The yolk sac and aorto-gonad-mesonephros region are well recognized as the principal sites of hematopoiesis in the developing embryo, and the liver is the principal site of hematopoiesis in the fetus. However, little is known about circulating hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in early fetal life. We investigated the number and characteristics of circulating progenitors in first trimester blood of 64 human fetuses (median gestational age, 10(+4) weeks; range, 7(+6)-13(+6) weeks).