Acta paediatrica
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Brain injuries remain a significant problem for preterm infants, despite extensive physiological monitoring. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) monitoring in the neonatal intensive care unit has to date remained limited to research activities. ⋯ This review highlights the increasing clinical application of NIRS in delivery suites and neonatal units. Four randomised controlled trials incorporating NIRS monitoring suggest that the future may indeed be brighter for this technology in the care of very preterm infants.
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Clinical Trial
Cardiac biomarkers indicate a need for sensitive cardiac imaging among long-term childhood cancer survivors exposed to anthracyclines.
The role that plasma N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and cardiac troponins T (cTnT) and I (cTnI) play in supplementing imaging to screen for cardiac late effects remains controversial and the impact of high-sensitivity cTnT and troponin-specific autoantibodies (cTnAAbs) remains unexplored. We studied the role of cardiac biomarkers as indicators of the late effects of anthracyclines among childhood cancer survivors. ⋯ Elevated plasma NT-proBNP or cTnAAbs indicated that childhood cancer survivors benefitted from being evaluated with modern imaging, despite normal function in conventional echocardiography. However, troponins did not seem to provide additional information on the late cardiotoxicity of anthracyclines.
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Up to 3% of infants with bronchiolitis under 12 months of age are hospitalised, and up to 9% require intensive care. We evaluated the costs of bronchiolitis hospitalisation, with a special focus on whether infants needed intensive care. ⋯ The hospitalisation costs of infants treated in the PICU for bronchiolitis at <12 months of age were approximately four times more than for other inpatients and over 20 times more than for outpatients. Strategies are needed to reduce the need for intensive care.
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The two-thumb encircling (TTE) technique often results in suboptimal cardiac compression and does not meet the requirements of current resuscitation guidelines. We compared this technique with the vertical two-thumb (VTT) technique, our novel modification of the TTE technique. ⋯ The VTT technique generated more pressure than the TTE technique in a simulated model of infant out-of-hospital CPR. It can provide an alternative compression technique for effective infant CPR, especially for the rescuers with small hands or a weak grip.
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Clinical Trial
Measuring health-related quality of life with the EQ-5D-Y instrument in children and adolescents with asthma.
Asthma is one of the most common chronic paediatric diseases worldwide and affects different dimensions of health-related quality of life. This study tested the feasibility and convergent validity of using the EQ-5D-Y instrument on children and adolescents with asthma. ⋯ The EQ-5D-Y instrument seemed to provide feasibility and convergent validity for measuring health-related quality of life in children and adolescents with asthma.