View clinical trials related to Infant, Very Low Birth Weight.
Filter by:The primary question to be addressed by this study is: compared with a functional oxygen saturation level (SpO2) of 91-95%, does targeting SpO2 85-89% in extremely preterm infants from birth or soon after, result in a difference in mortality or major disability in survivors by 2 years corrected age (defined as gestational age plus chronological age)?
VLBW infants are at risk of developing retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). In the first phase of ROP there is a down-regulation of retinal VEGF-expression because of postnatal relative hyperoxia, followed by an upregulation of VEGF mediated through retinal hypoxia, which leads to pathologic vessel formation. VEGF acts through binding to the specific receptor FLT-1, the soluble form sFLT-1 is a specific antagonist of VEGF action. Erythropoietin, given to VLBW infants to prevent anemia, may stimulate VEGF-production in neuronal cells. Currently, there are no data published about VEGF urine-levels in VLBW infants and it is not known, if urine VEGF-levels may serve as a non-invasive marker of ROP-risk. Further shall be investigated, if erythropoietin-therapy increases urine VEGF-levels and if there is a correlation with ROP-development.
This study aims to compare the short-term effects on growth and feeding tolerance of a liquid high calorie formula added to human milk versus powdered human milk fortifier in small preterm infants.
The aim of this study is evaluates the effect of the use of bottle and cup in breast sucking patterns in preterm infants. It will be a randomized blind study. One group will be randomized to use bottle to feed and another one to use a cup to feed. As secondary endpoints, weight gain, days of life to begin full oral feeding, length of hospital stay and breast feeding rates will be observed.
This is a research study investigating if adding human milk fortifier to a preterm babies breast milk feedings affects the baby's immune system.
Advances in newborn intensive care have lead to dramatic improvements in survival for the most premature infants—often weighing 1 pound at birth. Unfortunately, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and developmental delay affect more than 10,000 of these premature infants in the U.S. annually. In his studies, Dr. Jeffrey R. Kaiser is trying to understand why these premature infants are at such high risk of brain injury, and to learn ways to prevent injury. Experts believe that disturbances of brain blood flow regulation are important in causing these injuries. Using a novel continuous monitoring system, Dr. Kaiser is able to determine an infant's capacity for normal brain blood flow regulation. Contrary to previous thinking, he has shown that many of these babies in fact due have normal regulation of their brain blood flow. He has observed that brain blood flow may be disturbed during suctioning of the breathing tube. Further, he has also shown that infants with high carbon dioxide, those not breathing well, have impaired regulation of their brain blood flow. Thus, even stable infants are prone to disturbed brain regulation during routine intensive care, which may lead to bleeding in the brain and long-term neurologic problems. Dr. Kaiser will study up to 200 infants to determine 1) the developmental pattern of normal regulation of cerebral blood flow; 2) in those with impaired regulation, determine when it develops during the first week of life; and 3) determine the relationship between impaired brain blood flow regulation and brain injury. Results from this study will help us recognize when premature infants are most vulnerable to developing brain injury, allowing prevention and intervention strategies to be initiated in a timely fashion.
Plasma L-arginine concentrations are decreased in premature infants with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). A carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1) polymorphism has been correlated with low plasma concentrations of L-arginine in neonates (> 35 weeks of gestation). Recently Moonen et al (Pediatr Res 2007; 62(2):188-90) described a correlation between this CPS1 T1405N single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and the presence of NEC in VLBW infants. However there is no data about the correlation between the plasma arginine concentrations and the T1405N SNP in the CPS-1 gene in VLBW infants. In the present project we postulate that T1405N SNP in the CPS-1 gene is associated with lower plasma arginine concentrations and is also a risk factor for the development of NEC.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether very low birth weight infants (less than or equal to 1250g or about 2 3/4 pounds) born prematurely fed a diet of only human milk and human milk-derived nutrition have better health outcomes than babies fed at least some formula (made from cow's milk)or formula-derived nutrition.
Prolacta Bioscience has developed the first purely human fortifier, Prolact-Plus, that can provide a source of many of the required nutrients for premature, newborn infants, particularly protein and calories. This product is made from donor human milk from which the skim (non-lipid portion) has been separated and then concentrated. A certain amount of the lipid content has been added back to achieve higher caloric content within a small delivery volume. The product is then pasteurized and filled in small quantities in order to allow for the addition of mother's own milk (or, possibly, milk from another donor). The goal of the preparation is to achieve an increase of approximately 4 cal/oz of mother's milk and to provide a protein level (when mixed with average pre-term milk) of about 3.5-3.8 g/100 Kcal of feed. The data on Prolact-Plus will be obtained prospectively from infants who will receive human milk fortified in this fashion. The data on standard,bovine (cow)-fortified milk will be obtained retrospectively from medical records at the participating institutions. While this design is not necessarily optimal in this setting, it is an efficient and quick approach to evaluating the acute clinical effect of Prolact-Plus. It is anticipated that further studies will be conducted that will examine longer-term accounts and possibly do this in a controlled, randomized environment. The goal of this study is to evaluate the short-term effect of Prolact-Plus fortified human milk when compared with bovine-based fortification of human milk on parameters such as growth and short-term development, infectious complications and incidence of feeding intolerance in a cohort design. Statistically, the study will attempt to evaluate a null hypothesis of equivalent results with respect to these parameters between the two types of fortifiers as compared with a two-sided alternative (difference between the groups). In addition, data will be collected on overall survival and length of stay in the NICU. These data will be collected for descriptive purposes, although an attempt will be made to compare the findings with those obtained from the bovine-based fortifier.
Safety and efficacy of Somatropin will be evaluated in short children born with a list weight below 1500 g and that did not catch up to normal height at the age of 4.