View clinical trials related to Premature Birth.
Filter by:Preterm birth (less than 37 weeks) affect approximately 8% of babies in the UK and is the worldwide leading cause of death in children under the age of 5. Subclinical infection affects approximately 50% of women giving birth before 32 weeks. Infection contributes to significant neonatal morbidity and mortality. Antibiotics such as erythromycin is currently used to treat women who present with preterm rupture of membranes. While this has shown short-term improvement in neonatal morbidity, it has not had any impact in reducing the perinatal mortality and also little effect on the health of the children at age seven. Some antibiotics such as co-amoxiclav has not shown to be effective in delaying delivery and some studies have shown that antibiotics increases rather than reduces the risk of cerebral palsy. Many women do not display signs of infection and the underlying bacteria is multifactorial (bacterial vaginosis, trichomoniasis, gonorrhoea, Chlamydia, ureaplasma, Group B streptococcal and E. Coli) and remains a diagnostic challenge. The only available clinical approach is to test the sample of amniotic fluid for bacteria and small case series have shown prolongation of pregnancy when accurately targeted antibiotic treatment is used. This research aims to prove that targeted antibiotic therapy results in a greater prolongation of pregnancy than standard management for women with preterm prelabour rupture of membranes (PPROM) and/or threatened preterm labour (tPTL). Women will be randomised to standard care versus BioFire directed antibiotic treatment in addition to standard care. Investigators will use the BioFire point of care testing to identify the presence of infection and identify with anti-microbial resistance genes the bacteria possess to guide the antibiotic treatment. To be certain that the presence of infection is detected the investigators will use PCR to test the amniotic fluid for IL-6 and white cell count.
Caffeine, a typical representative of methylxanthine, is world-widely used to manage apnea of prematurity (AOP) in neonatology. However, an appropriate medication regimen of caffeine has not been well defined until now. For example, in terms of the duration of caffeine, AAP guideline for AOP (2016) and British NICE guideline for neonatal respiratory care (2019) all recommended discontinuing caffeine when the infants reached a postmenstrual age (PMA) ≥33weeks and had a stable respiratory status, commonly manifested by weaning from non-invasive ventilation and free of apneic episodes for at least five consecutive days. Interestingly, the actual clinical settings seem to be not strictly following this recommendation. A survey of the neonatologist in North America revealed that a substantial variability existed among sites in the timing of caffeine discontinuation before discharge and the respiratory support at the time of caffeine discontinuation [1]. Another survey in Saudi Arabia also had a similar finding [2]. The optimal timing of discontinuing caffeine is still a conundrum in the field of neonatology. Ideally, the optimal timing of discontinuing caffeine should be individual-specific. Published work has indicated that AOP and intermittent hypoxemia (IH) were frequently observed beyond 36 weeks' PMA in all gestational age groups, particularly in the 24- to 27-week infants [3, 4]. In the clinical settings, intermittent hypoxic and AOP episodes is a predominant cause of oxygen supplement in premature infants and commonly prolong the hospital stay. Optimizing arterial saturation by oxygen supplement is essential to achieve a stable cardiorespiratory status because hypoxemia could induce hypoxic sensitivity of the carotid bodies in neonates, resulting in more pronounced ventilatory depression and more frequent apneic episodes. Some RCTs have shown that continuing caffeine administration beyond PMA 34 weeks could reduce the frequency of IH episodes in premature infants [4, 5]. Therefore, theoretically, a prolonged caffeine administration over the usual duration could shorten the duration of oxygen supplements in those infants at high risk of frequent late AOP or IH. Target weaning oxygen could be an opportunistic indicator of discontinuing caffeine. In light of the above considerations, a multicenter, retrospective, partially blinded, controlled trials will be conducted to verify the hypothesis that a novel caffeine regimen that weaning oxygen as the indicator of discontinuing caffeine could improve respiratory outcomes of very premature infants.
Most premature babies require oxygen therapy. There is uncertainty about what oxygen levels are the best. The oxygen levels in the blood are measured using a monitor called a saturation monitor and the oxygen the baby breathes is adjusted to keep the level in a target range. Although there is evidence that lower oxygen levels maybe harmful, it is not known how high they need to be for maximum benefit. Very high levels are also harmful. Saturation monitors are not very good for checking for high oxygen levels. For this a different kind of monitor, called a transcutaneous monitor, is better. Keeping oxygen levels stable is usually done by nurses adjusting the oxygen levels by hand (manual control). There is also equipment available that can do this automatically (servo control). It is not known which is best. Research suggests that different automated devices control oxygen effectively as measured by the readings from their internal oxygen saturation monitoring systems. When compared to free-standing saturation monitors there appears to be variations in measured oxygen levels between devices. This could have important clinical implications. This study aims to show the different achieved oxygen levels when babies are targeted to a set target range. Babies in the study will have both a saturation monitor and a transcutaneous oxygen monitor at the same time. Both types of monitor have been in long term use in neonatal units. For a period of 12 hours, each baby will have their oxygen adjusted automatically using two different internal oxygen monitoring technologies (6 hours respectively). The investigators will compare the range of oxygen levels that are seen between the two oxygen saturation monitoring technologies. The investigators will study babies born at less than 30 weeks gestation, who are at least 2 days old, on nasal high flow and still require added oxygen.
This is a prospective observational pilot study investigating if skin-to-skin care (SSC) has an influence on cerebral oxygenation and perfusion measured with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) compared to incubator care in ventilated preterm neonates on the first day after birth.
This study is designed to determine whether intratracheal administration of budesonide combined with surfactant, as compared to surfactant alone, will modify ecographic (lung ultrasound score) and biological markers (IL-6 concentration in respiratory secretions) at 7 days of life in preterm infants ≤32 weeks of gestational age (GA).
Women recruited from the internet will be put in a hypothetical situation of being in labor at 22 weeks of pregnancy, and presented with information on the likelihood of survival and chance of disability for babies born at this gestational age. Participants will be randomized to receive this outcome data in one of three formats: as text-only, in a static pictograph, or in an iterative pictograph. Participants will also be randomized to seeing the chance of survival as 30% or 60%. Participants were then asked to choose between comfort care and intensive care in this situation. Participants' religiosity, value of the sanctity of life, and health literacy were also assessed.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether participation in the Play and Learning Strategies (PALS) parenting intervention results in increased caregiver responsiveness behaviors and to test if participation in PALS results in increases in toddler skills and/or toddler neurological development.
The family-centered care is based on dignity and respect, information sharing, collaboration and participation in care and decision-making. In a neonatal unit, the medical round by the attending physician is an important moment for shairing information with the medical and nursing staff and for the decision making process. In France, parents are rarely actively involved in the medical round. The aim of this study is to plan the implantation of the Family-centered round in a neonatal department using the 6 steps of the "Intervention mapping": 1/needs assessment; 2/ performance and change objectives; 3/ theory-based framework; Curriculum development; 5- adoption and implementation; 6- evaluation and dissemination
Preterm infants are at risk for feeding problems which can persist through early childhood. These feeding problems may include oral motor, sensory, digestive, nutritional, respiratory, and/or behavioral components. In North Carolina's early intervention program, speech pathologists or occupational therapists are responsible for completing feeding evaluations, and may not know when to refer infants out to medical specialists to address these other domains. This study will test a decision support tool in hypothetical feeding evaluation scenarios. The hypothetical scenarios will consist of real feeding videos of preterm infants who recently participated in a multidisciplinary feeding evaluation. Parent-reported outcomes of the infant's real evaluation will be compared to those of the speech pathologists and occupational therapists in our study who do, and do not, use the decision support tool. The investigators hypothesize that therapists with the tool will make recommendations that are closer to those of the multidisciplinary team, and that they will find the tool useful and easy to use. Due to recruitment limitations with families, the study was adapted in October, 2021 prior to enrollment of subjects to use case studies, rather than infant videos, as the hypothetical situation from which to test the tool. Therapists will then answer clinical questions without using the tool when viewing the first case study, and will use the tool to answer questions when viewing the second case study. Order of case study presentation will be randomized among participants.
Using Brain Mapping and Cognitive ERPs, the investigatos have searched for a Brain Networks involved during Inhibitory Control in Lifelong Premature Ejaculation (LPE) participants. The investigators have designed a clinical trial comparing placebo with tDCS and blacebo group against Dapoxetine, studying the effects on LPE, as well as side effects and their medium and long-term duration.