Newborn News and Research

RSS

Head-cooling device prevents brain damage in oxygen-deprived newborn babies

Liggins Institute Director and trial Director Professor Peter Gluckman said the CoolCap trial results were the culmination of over 20 years work and provided the first evidence in humans that brain damage at birth could be treated. The findings offered hope for a new approach to a major set of clinical conditions, he said.

6 May 2004

Brain damage at birth can be reversed

More than 1000 children die or suffer permanent brain injury every year in the UK because of shortage of oxygen around the time of birth. Tragedy can strike without warning, and often following normal healthy pregnancies. If the baby survives major problems include severe cerebral palsy, learning difficulties and epilepsy.

6 May 2004

Early postpartum visits with pediatricians may help prevent a dangerous complication associated with jaundice

Early postpartum visits with pediatricians may help prevent a dangerous complication associated with jaundice, according to the presentation, “Inadequate Attention Given to Jaundice in Healthy Term Infants during the First Postpartum Week.”

3 May 2004

Nasal fungi in newborn babies sheds light on eosinophilic chronic sinusitis

Researchers have recently claimed that eosinophilic chronic sinusitis is an immune disorder caused by the body’s reaction to fungus.

29 Apr 2004

$4.5 million contract to develop heart assist devices for infants

The University of Pittsburgh's McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine has been awarded a five-year $4.5 million contract from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to develop a heart assist device for infants.

28 Apr 2004

Common anemia drug may protect hearts of infants undergoing surgical repair of congenital defects

Medical College of Wisconsin researchers may have promising news for the many infants who are born with a congenital heart defect serious enough to require surgery before their first birthday.

21 Apr 2004

Newborn lambs’ central heating system could aid fat busting in humans

The way newborn lambs regulate their temperature in the first few weeks of life using a special deposit of brown fat could give clues for tackling obesity in humans, according to Imperial College London scientists.

18 Apr 2004

Lecture will explore the visual world of the newborn

Imagine creating an eye chart for someone who can't read or tell you what they see.

12 Apr 2004

Protein kinase complex influences the outer layer of skin to control the eventual shape of the full-grown skeleton and skull

Continuing studies about an important regulatory protein kinase complex called I-kappa-B kinase (or IKK) have now shown that a subunit of IKK – IKK alpha – influences the outer layer of skin in developing mice to control the eventual shape of the full-grown skeleton and skull.

7 Apr 2004

New research findings in study of Rett Syndrome

Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA reports in the April 6, 2004 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that introduction of the MeCP2 protein into post-mitotic nerve cells of MeCP2 mutant mice rescues the symptoms of Rett Syndrome. This raises the possibility that neurons are functionally normal in a newborn child and that neural dysfunction manifests itself only later due to prolonged MeCP2 deficiency. If correct, therapeutic strategies aimed at preventing the onset of Rett symptoms could be initiated at birth.

7 Apr 2004

Penn State Hershey Medical Center awaits arrival of hospital's first sextuplets

The team of Penn State women's health obstetricians and Penn State Children's Hospital neonatologists at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center are preparing for the arrival of the first set of sextuplets in the medical center's 34-year history.

5 Apr 2004

First North American sales of Raycell X-ray blood irradiator

The Indiana Blood Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, and SMDC Laboratory in Duluth, Minnesota have both chosen to purchase MDS Nordion's Raycell(TM) blood irradiator as a means of eliminating delays in receiving irradiated blood and blood products from external suppliers and improving the service they provide to physicians and patients.

30 Mar 2004

WHO says more pregnant women getting antenatal care

The number of pregnant women in developing countries receiving antenatal care during pregnancy has increased significantly since 1990, signalling that an untapped opportunity exists to reach poor women with a whole package of life-saving health services, according to a joint report issued today by UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

30 Mar 2004

Children with sickle cell disease are living longer, dying less often from their disease

Children with sickle cell disease, an inherited red blood-cell disorder, are living longer, dying less often from their disease and contracting fewer fatal infections than ever before, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas report. Their study, which will appear in the June edition of the scientific journal Blood, is the first to evaluate survival rates of children receiving the most modern treatments for sickle cell disease. It's also one of the largest published sickle cell studies to date. Researchers followed more than 700 Dallas-area children with the disease over two decades.

25 Mar 2004

Ban Chlorpyrifos and Diazinonon Impacts Child Birth Weights

A federal ban on two insecticides has resulted in a significant reduction in their impact on newborns' birth weight and length, according to a new study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other private foundations.

23 Mar 2004