BACKGROUND Preterm birth is closely associated with neurocognitive impairment in childhood including increased risk for social difficulties. Eye tracking objectively assesses eye-gaze behaviour in response to visual stimuli, which permits inference about underlying cognitive processes. We tested the hypothesis that social orienting in infancy is altered by preterm birth. METHODS Fifty preterm...

INTRODUCTION Globally, 11% of infants are born preterm. In adulthood, individuals born preterm are at increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, but the mechanistic basis of this remains unknown. Clinically overt cardiovascular disease may be preceded by altered cardiac autonomic activity characterised by increased sympathetic activity and/or reduced parasympathetic activity. Thu...

BACKGROUND Breast milk nutrient content varies with prematurity and postnatal age. Our aims were to conduct a meta-analysis of preterm and term breast milk nutrient content (energy, protein, lactose, oligosaccharides, fat, calcium, and phosphorus); and to assess the influence of gestational and postnatal age. Additionally we assessed for differences by laboratory methods for: energy (measured v...

BACKGROUND Cord blood contains high number of hematopoietic cells that after birth disappear. In this paper we have studied the functional properties of the umbilical cord blood progenitor cells collected from term and preterm neonates to establish whether quantitative and/or qualitative differences exist between the two groups. METHODS AND RESULTS Our results indicate that the percentage of ...

Prosodic information, such as word stress and speech rhythm, is important in language acquisition, and sensitivity to stress patterns is present from birth onwards. Exposure to prosodic properties of the native language occurs prenatally. Preterm birth and an associated lack of exposure to prosodic information are suspected to affect language acquisition in preterm infants. Fifty healthy very l...

INTRODUCTION Recent evidence suggests that preterm birth is a possible risk factor for high blood pressure (BP) in later life. The most widely quoted blood pressure centiles for very low birth weight (VLBW, ≤1500 g birth weight) infants at corrected term gestation is based on a cohort with mostly late preterm or term infants (Zubrow curves). OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to deter...

OBJECTIVE To compare thoracic musculoskeletal static alterations in adolescents born prematurely with those born at term and investigate neonatal and post-neonatal variables associated with thoracic alterations. METHOD This is a cross-sectional study with 57 adolescents aged 10-15 years born prematurely and 57 adolescents born at term paired by gender and age. Photographs of the head and thor...

Aim Prematurity has been shown to affect social competence in children and adults. Our aim was evaluate profiles of self-reported behaviours loneliness preterm- term-born adolescents. Methods Preterm (≤1500 g and, or, <32 gestational weeks)- infants were recruited Turku University Hospital from 2001 2006. The Multisource Assessment Children's Social Competence Scale the Peer Network Dyadic Lone...

BACKGROUND Chronic chorioamnionitis is found in more than one-third of spontaneous preterm births. Chronic chorioamnionitis and villitis of unknown etiology represent maternal anti-fetal cellular rejection. Antibody-mediated rejection is another type of transplantation rejection. We investigated whether there was evidence for antibody-mediated rejection against the fetus in spontaneous preterm ...