American journal of perinatology
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Cerebrospinal fluid parameters are of great importance in diagnosing meningitis, but normal values for preterm neonates are based on small, single-center studies. We sought to determine current values for preterm neonate cerebrospinal fluid parameters and assess the association of cerebrospinal fluid parameters with culture proven meningitis. We performed a cohort study of the first lumbar puncture from 4632 neonates < 34 weeks' gestation performed in the years 1997 to 2004 at 150 neonatal intensive care units managed by the Pediatrix Medical Group. ⋯ The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves for white blood cell count, glucose, and protein were 0.80, 0.63, and 0.72, respectively, for prediction of culture-proven meningitis. Cerebrospinal fluid parameters used to diagnose meningitis in the absence of dependable cerebrospinal fluid cultures are unreliable. Caution should be employed when interpreting cerebrospinal fluid parameters in the premature neonate.
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Case Reports
Serious postpartum infection due to MRSA in an asymptomatic carrier: case report and review.
Infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become a worldwide problem and is no longer acquired only in a hospital setting. Community-associated MRSA is an emerging pathogen of increasing interest to both obstetricians and neonatologists, reported in all three trimesters of pregnancy and postpartum, and in neonatal intensive care units, leading to severe outcomes, including neonatal death. This case report describes a serious and potentially life-threatening infection (including wound abscess, septicemia, septic thrombophlebitis, and septic pulmonary emboli) that developed in an otherwise healthy postpartum woman who had screened positive for MRSA in nares, vagina, and rectum at the time of her prior admission in labor as part of a research study. We conclude that asymptomatic nasal, vaginal, and rectal colonization with MRSA occurs in pregnancy and may be a risk factor for serious systemic infection after delivery.
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Comparative Study
A case-control comparison of the effectiveness of betamethasone to prevent neonatal morbidity and mortality in preterm twin and singleton pregnancies.
We compared the effectiveness of antenatal betamethasone for the prevention of neonatal morbidity and mortality in preterm twin and singleton gestations. We conducted a case-control study of women with twin versus singleton gestations who received betamethasone for risk of prematurity in a university-affiliated, community-based, tertiary care center between 1997 and 2005. Cases were identified from clinical care and pharmacy databases, then matched for neonatal gender and gestational age (GA) at delivery. ⋯ No differences in major morbidities or mortality were found in singletons versus twins. Concerns that the added maternal plasma volume in multiple gestations could lessen the neonatal benefits of antenatal betamethasone were not substantiated. This study may be affected by beta-error due to small sample size and sampling bias as a result of a retrospective study.
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Proinflammatory cytokines have been variably linked to development of cerebral white matter injury (WMI) in preterm infants. Because soluble receptors tightly control cytokine bioactivity, we modeled cytokine-receptor interaction as a predictor of WMI. Plasma from 100 preterm infants was assayed for cytokines (tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin (IL-1beta, IL-6) and their soluble receptors (sTNF-RI), sTNF-RII, sIL-1RA, and sIL-6R). ⋯ There was no association between individual cytokine or receptor concentrations and the development of WMI. However, modeling cytokines with their soluble receptors significantly improved the predictability of WMI. We concluded that consideration of cytokine-receptor interaction may be more important than individual cytokine concentrations alone in determining the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of WMI in preterm infants.