BACKGROUND Meningitis occurs in up to one third of neonates with septicaemia. Diagnosis is difficult due to its non-specificity of signs and symptoms. While neonatal septicaemia is a common problem at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), there are no recent data on the incidence and clinical characteristics of neonatal meningitis at the hospital. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the prevalence and the bact...

Interleukin-11 (IL-11), a newly-identified cytokine produced by stromal cells, elevates platelet counts in neonatal rats in vivo and synergizes in vitro with IL-3 in supporting murine megakaryocyte colony formation and stimulating hematopoietic stem cells. Megakaryocytopoiesis is also enhanced by other colony-stimulating factors (CSFs), including IL-3, IL-6, and Steel factor (SLF). Dysregulatio...

BACKGROUND The polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based test to detect herpes simplex virus (HSV) genome in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has become the test of choice for diagnosing this infection. The utility of this test in young infants undergoing sepsis evaluations is unknown. OBJECTIVES We sought to identify the factors that prompted physicians to include HSV PCR in their evaluation of young i...

Blood culture, the gold standard for diagnosis of neonatal sepsis has low sensitivity and is time consuming. Therefore, objective is development and application of Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based DNA sequencing to detect and identify bacterium causing neonatal sepsis in culture negative specimens. Sixty three peripheral blood and 8 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) referred from tertiary level Ne...

a deficiency of argininosuccinate synthetase in liver and brain developed rapidly increasing apathy, respiratory insufficiency, and convulsions from the fourth day of life, and died on the seventh day. There was a profound derangement of amino acid concentrations in blood, CSF, and urine, with very high citrulline levels. This patient differs from other cases reported previously, both in her fu...

Host defenses in the human neonate are limited by immaturity in phagocytic immunity. Such limitations seem to predispose infected newborns to neutropenia from an exhaustion of the neutrophil reserve. Among the critical defects thus far identified in neonatal phagocytic immunity is a specific reduction in the capacity of mononuclear cells to express granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) ...

Background: Women with epilepsy face difficult choices whether to continue antiepileptic drug treatment during pregnancy, as uncontrolled seizures carry great risk mother and fetus but continuing may have adverse effects on baby’s development. This study aimed at evaluating entry into developing brain. Methods: Anaesthetised pregna...

Reactive astrogliosis is a characteristic response of astrocytes to inflammation and trauma of the adult CNS. To assess the hypothesis that cytokines from inflammatory mononuclear cells that accumulate around lesion sites have a role in modulating astrogliosis, this study sought to take advantage of the neonatal system in which astrogliosis is reported to be minimal following injury and in whic...

PATIENT Male, 0 FINAL DIAGNOSIS: Purpura fulminans Symptoms: Fever • letargy MEDICATION - Clinical Procedure: - Specialty: Pediatrics and Neonatology. OBJECTIVE Rare disease. BACKGROUND Neonatal purpura fulminans (PF) is a rare but frequently fatal disorder associated with high morbidity and mortality. It may be congenital, as a result of protein C and S deficiency, or acquired due to sev...