T here are many ethical questions concerning research on preterm and newborn infants, why much has to be done on animals. Therefore, research has been, and is continuously done, on newborn lambs, monkeys, pigs, mice, and rats. During the last decades, the use of ‘‘piglets’’ as research animals has become more and more usual. But, what is a piglet, or actually what or who is a piglet? Doing a se...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Vitamin B(6) plays a pivotal role in brain development and functioning. Differences in vitamin B(6) homeostasis between preterm and term newborn infants have been reported. The authors sought to investigate whether B(6) vitamers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of preterm and term newborn infants are different. METHODS B(6) vitamer concentrations were determined in 69 CSF...

Newborn screening should provide opportunities to improve clinical outcomes and prevent complications. Care in a cystic fibrosis (CF) specialist center and early referral to a specialist CF center are associated with improved lung function [1–3]. Guidelines have been published on the early management of infants diagnosed through newborn screening [4,5]. There is good evidence from randomized cl...

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare receptive and expressive language skills in premature full-term babies under the newborn hearing screening follow-up program.

Subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn is an uncommon disorder occurring during the prenatal stage. Generally occurring in full-term neonates or during the first four weeks after a traumatic delivery, the disorder is characterized by the appearance of hard subcutaneous nodules or plaques on the trunk, buttocks or thighs. It is normally a benign and transient condition, although it may be comp...

Tear lysozyme concentration was measured in term, preterm, and small-for-dates infants using a modification of the lysoplate technique. The lysozyme concentration was greater in the term infant than in preterm and small-for-dates infants. The values were found to increase with birthweight and gestation to a term value which is similar to that described in adults. There was no relationship betwe...

A role for newborn neurons in olfactory memory has been proposed based on learning-dependent modulation of olfactory bulb neurogenesis in adults. We hypothesized that if newborn neurons support memory, then they should be suppressed by memory erasure. Using an ecological approach in mice, we showed that behaviorally breaking a previously learned odor-reward association prematurely suppressed ne...

A term newborn with a hypocontractile myocardium complicating persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn was successfully treated with a low-dose phosphodiesterase III inhibitor milrinone. Echocardiography diagnosed heart failure with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 35% and a left ventricular shortening fraction of 18% and severe per...