Anthropomorphic Infant DXA Phantom

Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) requires phantoms for quality control and cross-calibration, but commercially available phantoms are not designed specifically for whole-body scanning of infants. Shypailo and Ellis fabricated a phantom of a 7-kg human infant that emulates bone, lean tissue, and fat and exhibits good reproducibility.

See page Solid anthropomorphic infant whole-body DXA phantom: design, evaluation, and multisite testing

Autoregulation and Neonatal Encephalopathy

Howlett and colleagues looked at mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) in order to better describe the relationship between autoregulation and neurologic injury in neonatal encephalopathy. The autoregulation of newborns was monitored during therapeutic hypothermia, rewarming, and the first six hours of normothermia. It appears that maintaining MAP within a certain range might reduce the risk of neurologic injuries in neonatal encephalopathy.

See page Cerebrovascular autoregulation and neurologic injury in neonatal hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy

Genes and the Newborn Lung

Wollen and coinvestigators used a mouse model to investigate how hyperoxic reoxygenation after hypoxia affects transcriptional changes in the newborn lung. Their results suggest that hyperoxic reoxygenation affects pathways regulating cell growth and survival, and that the response of DNA-damage-related genes is restricted to reoxygenation with 100% oxygen.

See page Transcriptome profiling of the newborn mouse lung after hypoxia and reoxygenation: hyperoxic reoxygenation affects mTOR signaling pathway, DNA repair, and JNK-pathway regulation

Mortality Reduction in Neonatal Sepsis

Continuously monitoring a heart rate characteristics (HRC) index leads to a reduction in mortality among very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. Fairchild et al. hypothesized that the reduction in mortality is due to a decrease in septicemia-associated mortality. They analyzed clinical and HRC data from 2,989 VLBW infants and found that, indeed, septicemia-associated mortality was reduced, possibly as a result of diagnosis earlier in the course of illness.

See page Septicemia mortality reduction in neonates in a heart rate characteristics monitoring trial

Fat-Free Mass and Brain Processing Speed

The relationship between postnatal body composition and speed of brain processing was explored via air-displacement plethysmography in 16 appropriate-for-gestational-age preterm infants at term and at 4 months corrected gestational age. The results show that higher fat-free mass appears to be associated with shorter visual evoked potential latency, which reflects faster neuronal processing.

See page Exploratory study of the relationship of fat-free mass to speed of brain processing in preterm infants

Allergic Respiratory Disease

Wan and coinvestigators evaluated the concentrations of cysteinyl leukotriene and 8-isoprostane in the exhaled breath condensates (EBCs) from 34 children with allergic respiratory diseases and 24 healthy children. Cysteinyl leukotriene and 8-isoprostane concentrations varied significantly by time of year as well as between cases and controls.

See Cysteinyl leukotriene levels correlate with 8-isoprostane levels in exhaled breath condensates of atopic and healthy children