Monthly Archives: May 2014

New Lactoferrin Data

Posted on 29 May 2014 by Keith Barrington

Two new articles addressing effects of lactoferrin. Both used bovine lactoferrin (bLF), one was in humans, the other in piglets. In case you haven’t been following closely, lactoferrin is an iron transport protein that has multiple anti-infective properties, against bacteria, … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Filling Buckets

Posted on 29 May 2014 by Keith Barrington

The title of this post is the title of a wonderful new article in JAMA; an article describing 3 patient encounters by 2 physicians at different stages of their career and a medical student. Read it if you have access, and if you want to … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | 2 Comments

Low Cardiac Output after PDA ligation

Posted on 22 May 2014 by Keith Barrington

Some babies after PDA ligation develop a low cardiac output, Patrick McNamara and his colleagues have defined that as being less than 200 mL/kg/min left ventricular output. This cohort study of 30 infants post-ligation, by Afif El-Khuffash and colleagues at … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Neonatal Updates

Posted on 22 May 2014 by Keith Barrington

Dardas M, Gill SR, Grier A, Pryhuber GS, Gill AL, Lee Y-H, et al. The Impact of Postnatal Antibiotics on the Preterm Intestinal Microbiome. Pediatr Res. 2014. It will be no surprise to readers of this blog that antibiotics are … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Leave a comment

All trials reported, all results available

Posted on 20 May 2014 by Keith Barrington

The ‘All trials’ campaign is picking up steam, a new video is embedded below. I think the inclusion of a patient volunteer was a great idea, the altruistic aspect of consent for clinical trials, and the betrayal of that altruism … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Leave a comment

Probiotics in preterm infants: not just for NEC prevention any more

Posted on 20 May 2014 by Keith Barrington

A new RCT in more mature preterm infants 32 to 37 weeks compared the incidence of viral respiratory infections during the first year of life between infants who received prebiotics (galacto-oligosaccharide and polydextrose) probiotics (lactobacillus rhamnosus) or placebo between the … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Hero: Not just for infections any more

Posted on 15 May 2014 by Keith Barrington

Sullivan BA, Grice SM, Lake DE, Moorman JR, Fairchild KD. Infection and Other Clinical Correlates of Abnormal Heart Rate Characteristics in Preterm Infants. The Journal of pediatrics. 2014. Monitoring for abnormal heart rate characteristics has previously been shown in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Poietins for the brain?

Posted on 14 May 2014 by Keith Barrington

Ohls RK, Kamath-Rayne BD, Christensen RD, Wiedmeier SE, Rosenberg A, Fuller J, et al. Cognitive Outcomes of Preterm Infants Randomized to Darbepoetin, Erythropoietin, or Placebo. Pediatrics. 2014. I’ve written about this trial before, a smallish 3 arm trial of erythropoietin, … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Funny shaped heads? You can take the helmet off now.

Posted on 13 May 2014 by Keith Barrington

I often see kids around my hospital wearing orthotic helmets, designed to make their heads more round (some of them ex-preterms), and I often wondered if they really work. A new RCT from the Netherlands shows no effect . Renske MvW, Leo … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged | Leave a comment

Neonatal Updates

Posted on 12 May 2014 by Keith Barrington

Lipstein EA, Dodds CM, Britto MT. Real Life Clinic Visits Do Not Match the Ideals of Shared Decision Making. The Journal of pediatrics. 2014. The investigators video-taped discussion of higher risk interventions for chronic conditions (juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Leave a comment