PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Plastic drapes reduce hypothermia in premature babies

Study: Plastic better than cloth for low birth-weight newborns

Plastic drapes reduce hypothermia in premature babies
2021-07-01
(Press-News.org) Most babies born prematurely or with health problems are quickly whisked away to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where they might require assisted heating devices to regulate their temperature. A University of Houston College of Nursing researcher is reporting that the traditional use of cloth blankets and towels during peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) placement may hinder heat transfer from the assisted heating mechanisms, increasing the risk for neonatal hypothermia. In Advances in Neonatal Care, Huong (Kelle) Phan, clinical assistant professor, reports that a plastic drape lowers the incidence of hypothermia.

"The use of the plastic drape is a quality improvement to reduce the hypothermia rate in very low birth-weight (VLBW) neonates by replacing cloth blanket/towels with a plastic drape during PICC placement," said Phan. "A plastic drape shows promise in improving nursing practice by providing improved thermoregulation for premature neonates during PICC placement."

When a premature baby's body temperature drops below 36.5°C, the baby may experience cold stress, which is a cause for concern. The recommended temperature range for postnatal stabilization is between 36.5° and 37.5°C.

Phan's research project included implementing plastic drapes over three months, during 58 PICC procedures in a Level-3 NICU. A pre-/posttest was used to evaluate the impact of the intervention on hypothermia rates compared with a baseline cloth group and a concurrent cloth cohort.

"After the 3-month implementation period, the hypothermia rate for the intervention group was lower than that for the baseline cloth group (5.2% and 11.3%, respectively). Post-PICC hypothermia rates were significantly lower for the intervention group than for the concurrent cloth cohort," said Phan.

This evidence demonstrated plastic drapes reduced the hypothermia rate in the NICU for VLBW neonates during PICC placement compared with cloth blankets or towels.

"Phan's innovative nursing intervention of using the plastic drape during a PICC insertion helps some of our most vulnerable patients, those infants that must be treated in neonatal intensive care units," said Kathryn Tart, founding dean and Humana Endowed Dean's Chair in Nursing, UH College of Nursing.

Phan recommends further research to replicate findings with larger samples of PICC insertions, using a plastic drape in the operating room and other NICU procedures.

INFORMATION:


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Plastic drapes reduce hypothermia in premature babies

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Study: Nearly 10 percent of high school students experienced homelessness in Spring 2019

2021-07-01
WILMINGTON, Del. (June 29, 2021) - A new report finds that 509,025 (9.17%) public high school students in 24 states experienced homelessness in spring 2019 -- three times the number recognized by the states' education agencies. This under-recognition creates gaps in funding and services needed by this vulnerable population. Researchers from Nemours Children's Health and the University of Pennsylvania analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for public schools across 24 states and 12 school districts. During spring 2019, more than 9% of public high school students experienced homelessness during a 30-day period in the 24 states. The rate was even higher in the 12 school ...

Study identifies risk factors for severe COVID-19 in individuals with sickle cell disease

2021-07-01
New research published today in the journal Blood Advances finds that certain factors, such as a history of severe pain episodes and coexisting organ conditions, increase the risk of severe COVID-19 illness, including hospitalization, in individuals living with sickle cell disease (SCD). According to researchers, the study results underscore the need for COVID-19 risk reduction strategies and vaccination for this medically vulnerable population. SCD is the most common inherited red blood cell disorder in the United States, affecting an estimated 100,000 people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, SCD affects one out of ...

SARS-CoV-2 replication targets nasal ciliated cells early in COVID-19 infection

SARS-CoV-2 replication targets nasal ciliated cells early in COVID-19 infection
2021-07-01
Understanding how viral infection occurs can provide important clues for researchers to develop strategies to prevent viral transmission and develop effective therapeutic agents and vaccines. SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, enters the host cells through interaction between the virus's spike protein and the extracellular receptor binding domain of ACE2. The viral entry into the cells is completed by various proteases, which allow the viral and cell membranes to fuse together. While it is known that the upper respiratory tract becomes compromised in the early infection, the exact types of the cells that the virus infects at the earliest stage have not yet been identified. Led by Director ...

Fibromyalgia likely the result of autoimmune problems

2021-07-01
New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, in collaboration with the University of Liverpool and the Karolinska Institute, has shown that many of the symptoms in fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) are caused by antibodies that increase the activity of pain-sensing nerves throughout the body. The results show that fibromyalgia is a disease of the immune system, rather than the currently held view that it originates in the brain. The study, published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, demonstrates that the increased ...

Astonishing altitude changes in marathon flights of migratory birds

2021-07-01
Extreme differences in flight altitude between day and night may have been an undetected pattern amongst migratory birds - until now. The observation was made by researchers at Lund University in Sweden in a study of great snipes, where they also measured a new altitude record for migratory birds, irrespective of the species, reaching 8 700 metres. Great snipes are shorebirds that breed in Sweden, among other places, and spend the winter in areas near the equator in Africa. Previous studies have shown that great snipes make long marathon flights of up to 6 000 kilometres lasting 60-90 hours when they migrate between breeding sites in Sweden and wintering ...

New chatbot can explain apps and show you how they access hardware or data

New chatbot can explain apps and show you how they access hardware or data
2021-07-01
Chatbots have already become a part of our everyday lives with their quick and intuitive way to complete tasks like scheduling and finding information using natural language conversations. Researchers at Aalto University have now harnessed the power of chatbots to help designers and developers develop new apps and allow end users to find information on the apps on their devices. The chatbot -- 'Hey GUI' (pronounced goo-ee), short for Graphical User Interface, which will be presented at ACM Designing Interactive Systems 2021 on 1 July -- can answer questions by showing images and screenshots of apps, or through simple text phrases. "Hey GUI eliminates the need for coding skills or technical ...

Unlocking the power of the microbiome

Unlocking the power of the microbiome
2021-07-01
Hundreds of different bacterial species live in and on leaves and roots of plants. A research team led by Julia Vorholt from the Institute of Microbiology at ETH Zurich, together with colleagues in Germany, first inventoried and categorised these bacteria six years ago. Back then, they isolated 224 strains from the various bacterial groups that live on the leaves of thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana). These can be assembled into simplified, or "synthetic" plant microbiomes. The researchers thus laid the foundations for their two new studies, which were just published in the journals Nature Plants and Nature Microbiology. Volume control of the plant response In the first study, the researchers investigated ...

Better predicting how plants and animals will weather climate extremes

Better predicting how plants and animals will weather climate extremes
2021-07-01
A team of scientists has devised a more accurate way to predict the effects of climate change on plants and animals -- and whether some will survive at all. Frequently, ecologists assess an organism's fitness relative to the climate by quantifying its functional traits. "These are physical properties you can measure -- height, diameter, the thickness of a tree," said UC Riverside biologist Tim Higham. "We believe more information is needed to understand how living things will respond to a changing world." The team, led by Higham, outlines an alternative model for researchers in an article ...

Scientists reveal a new therapeutic vulnerability in pancreatic cancer

2021-07-01
NEW YORK, NY (July 1, 2021)--Lowering levels of a hormone called PTHrP can prevent metastases and improve survival in mice with pancreatic cancer and could lead to a new way to treat patients, according to a study from cancer researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and with collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania. When patients are first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the cancer usually has spread to other organs. Because of these metastases, nearly all patients will succumb to their cancer within one year of diagnosis, but no drugs exist to prevent metastasis. In an effort to find treatments, cancer researchers at Columbia--led by ...

Novel microscopy method at UT Southwestern provides look into future of cell biology

Novel microscopy method at UT Southwestern provides look into future of cell biology
2021-07-01
What if a microscope allowed us to explore the 3D microcosm of blood vessels, nerves, and cancer cells instantaneously in virtual reality? What if it could provide views from multiple directions in real time without physically moving the specimen and worked up to 100 times faster than current technology? UT Southwestern scientists collaborated with colleagues in England and Australia to build and test a novel optical device that converts commonly used microscopes into multiangle projection imaging systems. The invention, described in an article in today's Nature Methods, could open new avenues ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New study reveals 33% gap in transplant access for UK’s poorest children

Dysregulated epigenetic memory in early embryos offers new clues to the inheritance of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

IVF and IUI pregnancy rates remain stable across Europe, despite an increasing uptake of single embryo transfer

It takes a village: Chimpanzee babies do better when their moms have social connections

From lab to market: how renewable polymers could transform medicine

Striking increase in obesity observed among youth between 2011 and 2023

No evidence that medications trigger microscopic colitis in older adults

NYUAD researchers find link between brain growth and mental health disorders

Aging-related inflammation is not universal across human populations, new study finds

University of Oregon to create national children’s mental health center with $11 million federal grant

Rare achievement: UTA undergrad publishes research

Fact or fiction? The ADHD info dilemma

Genetic ancestry linked to risk of severe dengue

Genomes reveal the Norwegian lemming as one of the youngest mammal species

Early birds get the burn: Monash study finds early bedtimes associated with more physical activity

Groundbreaking analysis provides day-by-day insight into prehistoric plankton’s capacity for change

Southern Ocean saltier, hotter and losing ice fast as decades-long trend unexpectedly reverses

Human fishing reshaped Caribbean reef food webs, 7000-year old exposed fossilized reefs reveal

Killer whales, kind gestures: Orcas offer food to humans in the wild

Hurricane ecology research reveals critical vulnerabilities of coastal ecosystems

Montana State geologist’s Antarctic research focuses on accumulations of rare earth elements

Groundbreaking cancer therapy clinical trial with US Department of Energy’s accelerator-produced actinium-225 set to begin this summer

Tens of thousands of heart attacks and strokes could be avoided each year if cholesterol-lowering drugs were used according to guidelines

Leading cancer and metabolic disease expert Michael Karin joins Sanford Burnham Prebys

Low-intensity brain stimulation may restore neuron health in Alzheimer's disease

Four-day school week may not be best for students, review finds

Using music to explore the dynamics of emotions

How the brain supports social processing as people age

Túngara frog tadpoles that grew up in the city developed faster but ended up being smaller

Where there’s fire, there’s smoke

[Press-News.org] Plastic drapes reduce hypothermia in premature babies
Study: Plastic better than cloth for low birth-weight newborns