Showing papers in "Seminars in Perinatology in 2008"

TL;DR: The epidemiology and pathophysiology of NEC is reviewed, with an emphasis on the latest research findings and potential areas for future research.

TL;DR: In this article, a placenta-based fetal growth restriction (FGR) is clinically suspected if sonographic estimates of fetal weight, size, or symmetry are abnormal, and the integration of fetal anatomy assessment, amniotic fluid dynamics, uterine, umbilical, and fetal middle cerebral artery Doppler is the most effective approach to differentiate potentially manageable PLCA-based FGR from aneuploidy, nonaneuploid syndromes, and viral infection.

TL;DR: This chapter will review the literature focusing on early development delay, general intellectual functioning, specific cognitive skills, basic educational skills, and behavioral and emotional functioning in children born <26 weeks' gestation or with a birth weight <750 g.

TL;DR: Issues specific to the IUGR preterm infant are reviewed as well including an increased incidence of chronic lung disease, necrotizing enterocolitis, retinopathy of prematurity and postnatal growth failure.

TL;DR: Knowing the etiologies of fetal growth restriction is essential, so that future care can be targeted at prevention and there are several primary and secondary prevention strategies that can be adopted.

TL;DR: Fetal intrauterine growth restriction has been associated with adult disease in both human epidemiologic studies and in animal models and aspects of fetal programming can be reversed postnatally.

TL;DR: This chapter discusses the processes of vasculogenesis, angiogenesis, and pseudovasculogenesis during placental development and in pregnancies complicated by intrauterine growth restriction.

TL;DR: To understand the potential utility of probiotics in NEC, the components of gut defense; the role of the intestinal ecosystem in modulating immunity and inflammation; bacterial colonization patterns in the preterm infant compared with patterns seen in the healthy, full-term infant; the evidence for probiotics use in other populations and diseases; and the evidence of probiotic use specific to the pre term infant and NEC are discussed.

TL;DR: Evidence obtained from animal models and from human tissue collected from infants with NEC implicates NO and ET-1 dysregulation in the pathogenesis of NEC.

TL;DR: It is postulate that nitric oxide (NO), an important second messenger and inflammatory mediator, plays a key role in intestinal barrier failure seen in NEC and the mechanisms by which it promotes epithelial injury while concurrently disrupting the intrinsic repair mechanisms.

TL;DR: Both excess and reduced nutrient availability during fetal development can lead to the later development of obesity, and both human and animal studies relating fetal exposures to later obesity are summarized.

TL;DR: This review examines the key points in the signaling pathways involved in NEC, and potential strategies for prevention and treatment of this dreaded disease.

TL;DR: A wealth of research opportunities exists into regulation of amniotic fluid constituents and their relation to preterm delivery.

TL;DR: Although awareness of fetal movements is associated with improved perinatal outcomes, the quest to define a quantitative "alarm limit" to define decreased fetal movements has so far been unsuccessful, and the use of most such limits developed for fetal movement counting should be discouraged.

TL;DR: Efforts to devise appropriate strategies to avoid or shorten the postnatal hypothyroxinemia of infants born prematurely may well result in fewer and less severe neurodevelopmental deficits.

TL;DR: The purpose of this chapter is to discuss traditional biometric measurements as they relate to the diagnosis of IUGR.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed guidelines for management of decreased fetal movements that include both a nonstress test and an ultrasound scan and report findings in 3014 cases of reported decreased fetal movement.

TL;DR: The conceptual framework and operational definitions of QoL and health-related quality of life (HRQL) are discussed, some methodological issues are addressed, and areas of research are described that are likely to be fruitful in advancing the consideration ofQoL in future studies and in clinical practice.

TL;DR: The purpose of this paper is to apply the International Classification of Functioning framework to a spectrum of behavioral outcomes after extreme prematurity, describe useful tools for measuring behavioral, social, and adaptive competencies, as well as review model outcome studies before middle childhood.

TL;DR: One sheep model is used, used to examine the impact of placental insufficiency-induced IUGR on oxygen and nutrient transport and utilization, and significant insight has been gained on placental oxygen and nutrients transfer and utilization from use of pregnant sheep.

TL;DR: The role of EGF and other growth factors in the pathogenesis and prevention of NEC will be reviewed and preliminary clinical trials using EGF in neonates diagnosed with NEC have been shown to promote repair of intestinal epithelium.

TL;DR: The neonatologist engaged in the follow of care of VLBWPT infants after discharge from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit should monitor over time the velocity of weight, length, head circumference and weight/length ratio utilizing appropriate growth references.

TL;DR: Understanding the responses of the placenta to meet the increasing demands for oxygen and substrate of the developing fetus is helpful in developing a management strategy that will optimize pregnancy outcome.

TL;DR: Imaging of the preterm infant brain has advanced dramatically beyond the earliest era of transillumination, and substantial controversies exist pertaining to when and how neuroimaging should be performed and how images should be interpreted.

TL;DR: Normal fetal thyroid system development and the system immaturities contributing to THOP and predisposing to nonthyroidal illness in very low birth weight infants are reviewed.

TL;DR: Overall, IUGR fetuses demonstrate progressive hemodynamic changes and it appears that there is an earlier and more pronounced right than left and diastolic than systolic fetal cardiac function deterioration in growth-restricted fetuses.

TL;DR: This review emphasizes the three following concepts: normal and abnormal Doppler of the umbilical artery, middle cerebral artery, mitral and tricuspid valves, umbilicals vein, and ductus venosus, and potential future research of Dopplers in obstetrics.

TL;DR: This review presents an integrated diagnostic and surveillance approach that accounts for unrecognized growth restriction, timing of delivery, and neonatal risks in the preterm growth-restricted fetus.

TL;DR: Some of the mechanisms by which fetal oxygen consumption is maintained under normal conditions, and adaptations that occur in response to hypoxemia are summarized.

TL;DR: The pharmacological effects of SSRI on the fetus and newborn, available treatment, and prevention strategies are discussed in this review.