Benefit of early screening for vascular disorder among extremely preterm infants
2015-06-23
(Press-News.org) Among extremely preterm infants, early screening for the vascular disorder patent ductus arteriosus before day 3 of life was associated with a lower risk of in-hospital death and pulmonary hemorrhage, but not with differences in other severe complications, according to a study in the June 23/30 issue of JAMA.
The ductus arteriosus is a blood vessel in a fetus that bypasses pulmonary circulation by connecting the pulmonary artery directly to the ascending aorta. It usually closes within 72 hours of birth in most normal-term infants. However, failure to close is common in extremely premature infants, resulting in patent (open) ductus arteriosus (PDA), which can result in serious complications. There is currently no consensus for the screening and treatment of PDA. Some neonatologists perform early screening echocardiography (imaging of the heart with ultrasound) for PDA, which allows for diagnosis and treatment at a preclinical stage, according to background information in the article.
JeanChristophe Roze, M.D., Ph.D., of Nantes University Hospital, Nantes, France, and colleagues compared outcomes for preterm infants who received early screening echocardiography before day 3 of life vs. those not screened. The study included infants born at less than 29 weeks of gestation and hospitalized in 68 neonatal intensive care units in France from April through December 2011.
The final analysis included 847 infants who were screened ("exposed" group) for PDA and 666 who were not; 605 infants from each group could be paired. The proportion of infants who received a treatment for PDA at any time during their hospitalization was significantly lower in the nonexposed group than in the exposed group (43 percent vs 55 percent). Exposed infants had a lower hospital death rate (14 percent vs 18.5 percent). The number of infants needed to be screened to prevent 1 death was 23. Exposed infants also had a lower rate of pulmonary hemorrhage (6 percent vs 9 percent), a life-threatening complication.
No significant differences were observed in rates of necrotizing enterocolitis (severe inflammation due to decreased blood flow that occurs in the intestines of premature infants), severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (a chronic lung disorder in infants), and severe cerebral (brain) lesions.
The authors note that additional analysis resulted in some ambiguity regarding the interpretation of the results (whether the reduced mortality finding was statistically significant), and longer-term evaluation is needed to provide clarity.
INFORMATION:
(doi:10.1001/jama.2015.6734; Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-06-23
In an analysis of the findings of nearly 80 randomized trials that included about 6,500 participants, there was moderate-quality evidence to support the use of cannabinoids (chemical compounds that are the active principles in cannabis or marijuana) for the treatment of chronic pain and lower-quality evidence suggesting that cannabinoids were associated with improvements in nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, sleep disorders, and Tourette syndrome, according to a study in the June 23/30 issue of JAMA.
Medical cannabis refers to the use of cannabis or cannabinoids ...
2015-06-23
An analysis of edible medical marijuana products from 3 major metropolitan areas found that many had lower amounts of key substances than labeled, which may not produce the desired medical benefit, while others contained significantly more of a certain substance than labeled, placing patients at risk of experiencing adverse effects, according to a study in the June 23/30 issue of JAMA.
As the use of cannabis (marijuana) for medical purposes has expanded, a variety of edible products for oral consumption has been developed. An estimated 16 percent to 26 percent of patients ...
2015-06-23
In a proof-of-concept study, a team led by a Johns Hopkins researcher reports that the vast majority of edible cannabis products sold in a small sample of medical marijuana dispensaries carried labels that overstated or understated the amount of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Though the scope of the study was small, the researchers say, the results of the study suggest some medical cannabis patients could be unintentionally overdosing or are being cheated by mislabeled products.
"If this study is representative of the medical cannabis market, we may have hundreds ...
2015-06-23
BOSTON, June 23 -- In a Viewpoint published today in the Journal of the Medical Association (JAMA), researchers from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and Boston Children's Hospital call on the federal government to drop restrictions on total fat consumption in the forthcoming 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Co-authors Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D., Dr.P.H., dean of the Friedman School, and David Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D., director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children's Hospital, highlight a key, ...
2015-06-23
ANN ARBOR--A months-long literature search that involved tracking down century-old scientific papers and translating others from Czech and French helped University of Michigan ecologist Meghan Duffy answer a question she'd wondered about for years.
The early studies helped Duffy determine that the microscopic aquatic parasite she first observed as a graduate student, and which her research team had recently collected in more than a dozen southeast Michigan lakes, is the same fungus-like organism that a French biologist first described in 1903.
"The longer historical ...
2015-06-23
U.S. consumers are often urged to "buy American," and some special interest groups even claim that buying foreign products is inappropriate, or even immoral. But when it comes to buying domestic products, positive feelings for one's own country may play a more important role than negative feelings toward another, according to a new study in the Journal of International Marketing.
"National identity--feeling proud to be, say, an American--and believing that Americans should not buy foreign products influence attitudes toward domestic products, but the impact of national ...
2015-06-23
More than four out of five counselors who treat patients for substance abuse have experienced some form of patient-initiated workplace violence according to the first national study to examine the issue, led by Georgia State University Professor Brian E. Bride.
The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, is the first to measure the extent of workplace violence in substance abuse treatment centers across the United States. Bride and his co-authors analyzed a large, national sample of Substance Use Disorder counselors from the National Institutes ...
2015-06-23
Everyone in China knows global automobile brands such as Ford and Chevrolet. But do those brands really sell better than local ones such as Senova or Eado? The answer is yes, and the reason lies in a complicated mix of brand recognition and local culture, according to a new study in the Journal of International Marketing.
"In countries such as China with strong class divisions, internationally recognized brands can be a way of conveying wealth, prestige, and status," write authors M. Berk Talay (University of Massachusetts), Janell D. Townsend (Oakland University), and ...
2015-06-23
ANN ARBOR--A University of Michigan researcher and his colleagues are forecasting a slightly below-average but still significant "dead zone" this summer in the Chesapeake Bay, the nation's largest estuary.
The 2015 Chesapeake Bay forecast calls for an oxygen-depleted, or hypoxic, region of 1.37 cubic miles, about 10 percent below the long-term average. The forecast was released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which sponsors the work.
Farmland runoff containing fertilizers and livestock waste is the main source of the nitrogen and phosphorus ...
2015-06-23
CAMDEN, N.J. -- How do we remember colors? What makes green... green?
As Sarah Allred explains, while color perception universally involves the practice of categorizing colors according to basic labels, the influence of categorization on color memory remains largely unknown and understudied.
'So that leaves a lot of questions unanswered,' says Allred, an assistant professor of psychology at Rutgers University-Camden. ''Do we remember colors just as we saw them?', 'Does time affect how we remember colors?', 'Are some colors easier to remember than others?''
Thanks ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Benefit of early screening for vascular disorder among extremely preterm infants
