Birth weight and gestational age are important measures of a newborn's intrinsic health, serving both as outcome measures and explanatory variables in health studies. The measures are highly correlated but occasionally inconsistent. We anticipate that health researchers and other scientists would be helped by summary indexes of birth weight and gestational age that give more precise indications...

The authors examined secular trends in birth weight for a geographically defined population over 40 years, controlling for migration effects. The study was an analysis first of all Illinois births between 1950 and 1990 and second of a subset of births for which two succeeding generations were born in the state. For the latter analysis, the authors created a transgenerational birth file by linki...

BACKGROUND Information tracking changes of birthweight is scarce in China. To examine trends of low birthweight (birthweight < 2500 g) and macrosomia (birthweight ≥ 4000 g) and potential risk factors in Beijing, hospital records from two major obstetrics and gynecology hospitals in urban districts in Beijing were analyzed. METHODS Hospital records from 1996 to 2010 were retrieved. Information...

BACKGROUND Heart rate has been used to measure infants' physiological stability during skin-to-skin holding. Variability in heart period (interbeat interval), a more sensitive measure of autonomic nervous system tone, has not. OBJECTIVE To describe heart period variability in intubated very-low-birth-weight infants during incubator care and during maternal skin-to-skin holding. DESIGN/METHO...

In this report, we review the case of a candidal lens abscess in a premature infant girl who was 28 weeks' gestational age at birth. The culture obtained from the lens abscess grew Candida albicans sensitive to amphotericin B but resistant to flucytosine. This case is unique in that the infant developed a fungal lens cataract at 34 weeks' postconceptional age during the last week of a 30-day co...

The threatened birth of an extremely-low-birth-weight (ELBW) and gestational age infant presents complex medical, social and ethical issues for the family and the health professionals. Improved survival may be accompanied by increased risks of chronic medical problems and neurodevelopmental disabilities. It is difficult to define "how small is too small" and to decide "how much is too much" in ...

Systemic candidiasis affects 1.6 to 4.5% of very low birth weight (</= 1,500 g) infants. A specimen archive of Candida strains from intensive care nurseries was created; it currently houses 98 isolates from 17 institutions. Eight isolates (8.2%) were misidentified at the referring institution. The MICs of fluconazole for seven isolates (7.1%, all non-C. albicans species, one misidentified initi...

BACKGROUND Pregnancy in adolescence is associated with an excess risk of poor outcomes, including low birth weight and prematurity. Whether this association simply reflects the deleterious sociodemographic environment of most pregnant teenagers or whether biologic immaturity is also causally implicated is not known. METHODS To determine whether a young age confers an intrinsic risk of adverse...

background   lipoprotein lipase activity can be increased by clofibrate. clofibrate is used to reduce serum triglyceride level in adults. the aim of this study was to determine the effect of clofibrate on serum triglyceride and cholesterol level after administration of intravenous lipid in very low birth weight neonates. method in a randomized double blind placebo – controlled study, 60 very lo...

OBJECTIVE Motor development is frequently reported to be impaired in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants, but little is known about the moderately low birth weight (MLBW) infants. The aim of this study was to investigate whether MLBW preterm infants present developmental delay. METHODS In a historical cohort study, 18±2 month-old infants with a history of low birth weight (LBW) were identifi...