scholarly journals Autonomic Nervous System Maturation and Emotional Coordination in Interactions of Preterm and Full-Term Infants With Their Parents: Protocol for a Multimethod Study

10.2196/28089 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. e28089
Author(s):  
Christina Koumarela ◽  
Theano Kokkinaki ◽  
Giorgos Giannakakis ◽  
Katerina Koutra ◽  
Eleftheria Hatzidaki
Keyword(s):  
Preterm Infants ◽  
Family Cohesion ◽  
Neonatal Period ◽  
Developmental Outcomes ◽  
Full Term ◽  
Term Infants ◽  
Parent Group ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship

Background There is limited knowledge on the physiological and behavioral pathways that may affect the developmental outcomes of preterm infants and particularly on the link between autonomic nervous system maturation and early social human behavior. Thus, this study attempts to investigate the way heart rate variability (HRV) parameters are related to emotional coordination in interactions of preterm and full-term infants with their parents in the first year of life and the possible correlation with the developmental outcomes of infants at 18 months. Objective The first objective is to investigate the relationship between emotional coordination and HRV in dyadic full-term infant–parent (group 1) and preterm infant–parent (group 2) interactions during the first postpartum year. The second objective is to examine the relationship of emotional coordination and HRV in groups 1 and 2 in the first postpartum year with the developmental outcomes of infants at 18 months. The third objective is to investigate the effect of maternal and paternal postnatal depression on the relation between emotional coordination and HRV in the two groups and on developmental outcomes at 18 months. The fourth objective is to examine the effect of family cohesion and coping on the relation between emotional coordination and HRV in the two groups and on developmental outcomes at 18 months. Methods This is an observational, naturalistic, and longitudinal study applying a mixed method design that includes the following: (1) video recordings of mother-infant and father-infant interactions at the hospital, in the neonatal period, and at home at 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 months of the infants’ life; (2) self-report questionnaires of parents on depressive symptoms, family cohesion, and dyadic coping of stress; (3) infants’ HRV parameters in the neonatal period and at each of the above age points during and after infant-parent video recordings; and (4) assessment of toddlers’ social and cognitive development at 18 months through an observational instrument. Results The study protocol has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Crete (number/date: 170/September 18, 2020). This work is supported by the Special Account for Research Funds of the University of Crete (grant number: 10792-668/08.02.2021). All mothers (with their partners) of full-term and preterm infants who give birth between March 2021 and January 2022 at the General University Hospital of Crete (northern Crete, Greece) will be invited to participate. The researcher will invite the parents of infants to participate in the study 1 to 2 days after birth. Data collection is expected to be completed by March 2023, and the first results will be published by the end of 2023. Conclusions Investigating the regulatory role of HRV and social reciprocity in preterm infants may have implications for both medicine and psychology. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/28089

scholarly journals Autonomic Nervous System Maturation and Emotional Coordination in Interactions of Preterm and Full-Term Infants With Their Parents: Protocol for a Multimethod Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Koumarela ◽  
Theano Kokkinaki ◽  
Giorgos Giannakakis ◽  
Katerina Koutra ◽  
Eleftheria Hatzidaki
Keyword(s):  
Preterm Infants ◽  
Family Cohesion ◽  
Neonatal Period ◽  
Developmental Outcomes ◽  
Full Term ◽  
Term Infants ◽  
Parent Group ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship

BACKGROUND There is limited knowledge on the physiological and behavioral pathways that may affect the developmental outcomes of preterm infants and particularly on the link between autonomic nervous system maturation and early social human behavior. Thus, this study attempts to investigate the way heart rate variability (HRV) parameters are related to emotional coordination in interactions of preterm and full-term infants with their parents in the first year of life and the possible correlation with the developmental outcomes of infants at 18 months. OBJECTIVE The first objective is to investigate the relationship between emotional coordination and HRV in dyadic full-term infant–parent (group 1) and preterm infant–parent (group 2) interactions during the first postpartum year. The second objective is to examine the relationship of emotional coordination and HRV in groups 1 and 2 in the first postpartum year with the developmental outcomes of infants at 18 months. The third objective is to investigate the effect of maternal and paternal postnatal depression on the relation between emotional coordination and HRV in the two groups and on developmental outcomes at 18 months. The fourth objective is to examine the effect of family cohesion and coping on the relation between emotional coordination and HRV in the two groups and on developmental outcomes at 18 months. METHODS This is an observational, naturalistic, and longitudinal study applying a mixed method design that includes the following: (1) video recordings of mother-infant and father-infant interactions at the hospital, in the neonatal period, and at home at 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 months of the infants’ life; (2) self-report questionnaires of parents on depressive symptoms, family cohesion, and dyadic coping of stress; (3) infants’ HRV parameters in the neonatal period and at each of the above age points during and after infant-parent video recordings; and (4) assessment of toddlers’ social and cognitive development at 18 months through an observational instrument. RESULTS The study protocol has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Crete (number/date: 170/September 18, 2020). This work is supported by the Special Account for Research Funds of the University of Crete (grant number: 10792-668/08.02.2021). All mothers (with their partners) of full-term and preterm infants who give birth between March 2021 and January 2022 at the General University Hospital of Crete (northern Crete, Greece) will be invited to participate. The researcher will invite the parents of infants to participate in the study 1 to 2 days after birth. Data collection is expected to be completed by March 2023, and the first results will be published by the end of 2023. CONCLUSIONS Investigating the regulatory role of HRV and social reciprocity in preterm infants may have implications for both medicine and psychology. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT PRR1-10.2196/28089

Infant–Father Attachment in Infants Born Preterm - A Brief Report

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Ruediger Kissgen ◽  
Sebastian Franke ◽  
Nino Jorjadze ◽  
Bernhard Roth ◽  
Angela Kribs
Keyword(s):  
Preterm Infants ◽  
Full Term ◽  
Strange Situation ◽  
Term Infants ◽  
Attachment Quality ◽  
Attachment Research ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Problems ◽  
Strange Situation Procedure ◽  
Father Attachment

This study examines the infant–father attachment in infants born preterm (<  1500 g at birth and/or <  37 weeks gestation) in comparison to full-term infants. The infant–father attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation Procedure at a (corrected) age of 15 months. We found at least half of preterm and full-term infants (50.0% and 56.5 % respectively) securely attached to their fathers, and no significant overall difference was observed concerning the distribution of attachment quality comparing the two groups. In light of the fact that preterm infants tend to have numerous neurodevelopmental problems, it is encouraging that significant differences were not found in the distribution of the attachment quality among the groups. Therefore, from the perspective of attachment research, it would be highly beneficial to include fathers in the care of their preterm infants.

Reduction in Obstructive Breathing Events During Body Rocking: A Controlled Polygraphic Study in Preterm and Full-Term Infants

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-68
Author(s):  
J. Groswasser ◽  
M. Sottiaux ◽  
E. Rebuffat ◽  
T. Simon ◽  
M. Vandeweyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Preterm Infants ◽  
Upper Airway ◽  
Periodic Breathing ◽  
Full Term ◽  
Rapid Eye Movement ◽  
Term Infants ◽  
Obstructive Sleep ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Obstructive Sleep Apneas

Objective. To investigate the effect of body rocking on infant respiratory behavior during sleep. Methods. Eighteen infants with documented obstructive sleep apneas were studied. There were eight premature infants with persistent bradycardias and 10 infants born full-term, admitted after an idiopathic apparent life-threatening event. No cause for the obstructive apneas was found. The infants were recorded with polygraphic techniques during two successive nights. They were randomly assigned to a rocking or a nonrocking mattress. The conditions were reversed the following night, in a crossover design. Results. In both groups of infants, no significant difference was seen between the two consecutive nights for most of the variables studied: total sleep time, the proportion of non-rapid-eye-movement and rapid-eye-movement sleep, the number of arousals, the number and maximal duration of central apneas, the frequency of periodic breathing, the level of oxygen saturation, and heart rate. During the nonrocking nights, all infants had repeated obstructive breathing events. In seven of the eight preterm infants and in nine of the 10 full-term subjects, body rocking was associated with a significant decrease in the frequency of obstructive events. During rocking, in the preterm infants the obstructions fell from a median of 2.5 to 1.8 episodes per hour (P = .034). In the full-term infants, rocking reduced the obstructive events from a median of 1.5 obstructions per hour to 0.7 (P = .005). No difference was seen for the duration of the obstructive episodes. Conclusion. In preterm and full-term infants prone to obstructive sleep apneas, gentle side-to-side body rocking is associated with a significant decrease in the frequency of upper-airway obstructions.

ANALYSIS OF FETAL AND NEONATAL DEATHS IN 4117 CONSECUTIVE BIRTHS

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1950 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-192
Author(s):  
HERBERT C. MILLER
Keyword(s):  
Cause Of Death ◽  
Premature Infants ◽  
Neonatal Death ◽  
Causes Of Death ◽  
Neonatal Period ◽  
Full Term ◽  
Maternal Complications ◽  
Term Infants ◽  
Neonatal Deaths ◽  
Postmortem Examinations

An analysis of the significant causes of death in 4117 consecutive births was made; there were 66 fetal deaths and 85 neonatal deaths. A significant cause of death was determined in 51 fetuses and 56 live-born infants. Eighty-five per cent of the live-born infants who weighed over 1000 gm. at birth and had postmortem examinations had causes of death which were considered to be significant. Almost half of the live-born premature infants with birth weights between 1000 and 2500 gm. were considered to have had more than one significant cause of death. The so-called significant causes of death among live-born infants differed from those determined for fetuses dying before birth. Among the former, pathologic conditions in the infants were determined four times more frequently than in those dying before birth and, in the latter, maternal complications of pregnancy and labor were diagnosed as significant causes of death five times more frequently than in infants dying in the neonatal period. Hyaline-like material in the lung was considered to be the most frequent significant cause of death in live-born premature infants; congenital malformation and anoxia resulting from complications of labor were the most frequently determined significant causes of death in live-born full term infants. No differences were found in the significant causes of death in premature and full term fetuses. Anoxia resulting from accidental and unexpected interruption of the blood flow in the placenta and umbilical cord and from dystocia was the most frequently determined significant cause of death in both groups. A plea has been made for the adoption by obstetricians, pathologists and pediatricians of a formal uniform plan of classifying the causes of fetal and neonatal death which would divest current efforts to determine the cause of death of as much vague terminology and arbitrary opinion as possible.

Vaccinations in Infants Born Preterm: An Update

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-155
Author(s):  
Areti Aphrodite Sioriki ◽  
Despoina Gkentzi ◽  
Evangelia Papadimitriou ◽  
Gabriel Dimitriou ◽  
Ageliki Karatza
Keyword(s):  
Preterm Infants ◽  
Vaccine Safety ◽  
Full Term ◽  
Morbidity And Mortality ◽  
Term Infants ◽  
Safety And Efficacy ◽  
Vaccine Preventable Diseases ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Protective Antibodies

Infants born prematurely (before completion of 37 weeks of gestation) are at increased risk of morbidity and mortality due to vaccine preventable diseases, mostly because of their immunological immaturity and failure of transfer of maternal protective antibodies. Despite their great need of being vaccinated, concerns on vaccine safety and efficacy, constitute the main reasons for which vaccinations are often delayed in this group. In this review we summarize the latest evidence on vaccine safety, efficacy and immunogenicity in preterm infants which is similar to full-term infants. Therefore there is no reason for delaying vaccination in this population.

Breath-to-breath variability of exhaled CO2 as a marker of lung dysmaturity in infancy

2017 ◽  
Vol 123 (6) ◽  
pp. 1563-1570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sotirios Fouzas ◽  
Ilias Theodorakopoulos ◽  
Edgar Delgado-Eckert ◽  
Philipp Latzin ◽  
Urs Frey
Keyword(s):  
Lung Disease ◽  
Preterm Infants ◽  
Chronic Lung Disease ◽  
Tidal Breathing ◽  
Term Infants ◽  
Young Infants ◽  
Postmenstrual Age ◽  
Preterm Group ◽  
Preterm Born ◽  
The Relationship

The concept of diffusional screening implies that breath-to-breath variations in CO2 clearance, when related to the variability of breathing, may contain information on the quality and utilization of the available alveolar surface. We explored the validity of the above hypothesis in a cohort of young infants of comparable postmenstrual age but born at different stages of lung maturity, namely, in term-born infants ( n = 128), preterm-born infants without chronic lung disease of infancy (CLDI; n = 53), and preterm infants with moderate/severe CLDI ( n = 87). Exhaled CO2 volume (VE,CO2) and concentration (FE,CO2) were determined by volumetric capnography, whereas their variance was assessed by linear and nonlinear variability metrics. The relationship between relative breath-to-breath change of VE,CO2 (ΔVE,CO2) and the corresponding change of tidal volume (ΔVT) was also analyzed. Nonlinear FE,CO2 variability was lower in CLDI compared with term and non-CLDI preterm group ( P < 0.001 for both comparisons). In CLDI infants, most of the VE,CO2 variability was attributed to the variability of VT ( r2 = 0.749), whereas in term and healthy preterm infants this relationship was weaker ( r2 = 0.507 and 0.630, respectively). The ΔVE,CO2 − ΔVT slope was less steep in the CLDI group (1.06 ± 0.07) compared with non-CLDI preterm (1.16 ± 0.07; P < 0.001) and term infants (1.20 ± 0.10; P < 0.001), suggesting that the more dysmature the infant lung, the less efficiently it eliminates CO2 under tidal breathing conditions. We conclude that the temporal variation of CO2 clearance may be related to the degree of lung dysmaturity in early infancy. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Young infants exhibit appreciable breath-to-breath CO2 variability that can be quantified by nonlinear variability metrics and may reflect the degree of lung dysmaturity. In infants with moderate/severe chronic lung disease of infancy (CLDI), the variability of the exhaled CO2 is mainly driven by the variability of breathing, whereas in term-born and healthy preterm infants this relationship is less strong. The slope of the relative CO2-to-volume change is less steep in CLDI infants, suggesting that dysmature lungs are less efficient in eliminating CO2 under tidal breathing conditions.

Transcutaneous Bilirubin Measurements: Variation in Meter Response

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-459
Author(s):  
M. JEFFREY MAISELS ◽  
CHERYL LEE
Keyword(s):  
Neonatal Jaundice ◽  
Serum Bilirubin ◽  
Full Term ◽  
Term Infants ◽  
Transcutaneous Bilirubin ◽  
Potential Variation ◽  
Screening Device ◽  
The Relationship

The transcutaneous bilirubin meter has been shown to be a useful screening device for the identification of significant neonatal jaundice in full-term infants.1-3 Investigators have, nevertheless, emphasized the necessity for each institution to establish the relationship between the transcutaneous bilirubin index, as measured with a particular instrument, and the serum bilirubin determination obtained from the institution's laboratory. 3 This is important, because of the known variation between laboratories in the measurement of serum bilirubin concentration4 and because no information has been published regarding the potential variation in the response of different transcutaneous bilirubin meters.

scholarly journals A Computational Role for Top–Down Modulation from Frontal Cortex in Infancy

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 508-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sagi Jaffe-Dax ◽  
Alex M. Boldin ◽  
Nathaniel D. Daw ◽  
Lauren L. Emberson
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Preterm Infants ◽  
Prediction Error ◽  
Frontal Lobes ◽  
Full Term ◽  
Computational Learning ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Term Infants ◽  
Young Infants ◽  
Sensory Prediction

Recent findings have shown that full-term infants engage in top–down sensory prediction, and these predictions are impaired as a result of premature birth. Here, we use an associative learning model to uncover the neuroanatomical origins and computational nature of this top–down signal. Infants were exposed to a probabilistic audiovisual association. We find that both groups (full term, preterm) have a comparable stimulus-related response in sensory and frontal lobes and track prediction error in their frontal lobes. However, preterm infants differ from their full-term peers in weaker tracking of prediction error in sensory regions. We infer that top–down signals from the frontal lobe to the sensory regions carry information about prediction error. Using computational learning models and comparing neuroimaging results from full-term and preterm infants, we have uncovered the computational content of top–down signals in young infants when they are engaged in a probabilistic associative learning.

scholarly journals Platelets in the neonatal period: developmental differences in platelet production, function, and hemostasis and the potential impact of therapies

Hematology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 (1) ◽  
pp. 506-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Sola-Visner
Keyword(s):  
Preterm Infants ◽  
Neonatal Intensive Care ◽  
Developmental Differences ◽  
Full Term ◽  
Term Infants ◽  
Platelet Production ◽  
Primary Hemostasis ◽  
Wall Interaction ◽  
And Function

Abstract Thrombocytopenia is a common problem among sick neonates admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Frequently, platelet transfusions are given to thrombocytopenic infants in an attempt to decrease the incidence or severity of hemorrhage, which is often intracranial. Whereas there is very limited evidence to guide platelet transfusion practices in this population, preterm infants in the first week of life (the highest risk period for bleeding) are nearly universally transfused at higher platelet counts than older infants or children. To a large extent, this practice has been influenced by the observation that neonatal platelets are hyporeactive in response to multiple agonists in vitro, although full-term infants exhibit normal to increased primary hemostasis. This apparently paradoxical finding is due to factors in the neonatal blood that enhance the platelet-vessel wall interaction and counteract the platelet hyporeactivity. Relatively few studies have evaluated the platelet function and primary hemostasis of preterm infants, the subset of neonates at highest risk of bleeding and those most frequently transfused. Current understanding of platelet production and function in preterm and full-term neonates, how these factors affect their response to thrombocytopenia and their primary hemostasis, and the implications of these developmental differences to transfusion medicine are reviewed herein.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document