One of the goals of Healthy People 2010 (set in 1998) was to reduce preterm birthrates from 11.6% to 7.6%. However, in 2004, the preterm birthrate of 12.5% was actually higher than the rate in 1998. Approximately 65% of this increase in prematurity rate is attributed to the increasing birthrate of the late preterm infant. Care of the late preterm infant is far more complicated than many hospita...

EXTREME PREMATURITY AND ATTENTION IMPAIRMENT Preterm infants are at increased risk for a wide range of developmental disorders, including sensory, motor, cognitive, and other brain disorders (Lorenz et al., 1998; Bhutta et al., 2002; Aarnoudse-Moens et al., 2009), and the risk is highest for those infants born before 28 weeks gestation, i.e., extremely preterm or extremely low gestational age i...

OBJECTIVE To describe the characteristics of activity bursts in the early preterm EEG, to assess inter-rater agreement of burst detection by visual inspection, and to determine the performance of an automated burst detector that uses non-linear energy operator (NLEO). METHODS EEG recordings from extremely preterm (n=12) and very preterm (n=6) infants were analysed. Three neurophysiologists in...

Exposure to prenatal and early-life stress results in alterations in neural connectivity and an increased risk for neuropsychiatric disorders. In particular, alterations in amygdala connectivity have emerged as a common effect across several recent studies. However, the impact of prenatal stress exposure on the functional organization of the amygdala has yet to be explored in the prematurely-bo...

Maternal fever and neural tube defects c Maternal hyperthermia during the first trimester seems to contribute to an increased risk for neural tube defects (NTDs). Animal studies in the 1980s suggested that fever might lead to NTDs; in humans, however, this association was harder to confirm. A case-control study was undertaken to investigate an epidemic of NTDs near the Mexican border in Texas. ...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the prevalence, correlates, and antecedents of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in extremely preterm children. STUDY DESIGN We conducted a prospective study of all births <26 weeks gestation in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 1995. Of 307 survivors at 11 years, 219 (71%) were assessed and compared with 153 term-born classmates. Parents completed the Social Communica...

In extremely preterm-born infants, gas exchange takes place in developmentally fetal lungs, disturbing normal acinar growth and differentiation, potentially with long term negative consequences for lung function. The aim was to compare alveolar function in children and adolescents born extremely preterm and at term by measuring diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO). Since th...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The importance of biological versus social influences on long-term outcomes of extremely preterm children is debatable. The goal of this study was to determine the relative contributions of biological and social exposures to outcomes into adolescence in extremely preterm survivors, hypothesizing that biological exposures would be more important early, but social exposu...