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Aim: Late-onset sepsis (LOS) persists to be a crucial reason of morbidity and mortality in preterm infants. Studying the effect of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) value in predicting the LOS episode and relation with the type of the growing microorganism were the aim of this study. Material and Methods: Preterm infants were classified as two groups in accordance with having culture proven LOS during the stay in neonatal intensive care unit. Premature infants with culture proven LOS was defined as study group and infants with no-LOS as control group. Study group is consisting of two subgroups in terms of the growing microorganism type. NLR values were compared within and between the groups. Results: Overall, final analysis were applied to 116 infants. NLR values were raised in the study group during LOS episode (p<0.001). NLR value of the Gram-positive sepsis group (Subgroup 1) was significantly higher in comparison to Gram-negative sepsis group (Subgroup 2) (median: 2.4 and 1.8, respectively, p = 0.02). ROC analysis showed that area under the curve (AUC) of NLR was 0.723 (p<0.001) and cut-off point optimized for sensitivity of 68% and a specificity of 82% was stated as NLR ≥1.57 for conforming LOS. Conclusions: These findings demonstrated that in preterm infants, NLR values rise for the duration of a LOS episode. We believe that NLR value may be a helpful for the prediction of LOS in preterm infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Objective: Preterm infants need nutritional and medical requirements in accordance with the physiologic maturity at birth and maintaining optimal postnatal corporal and cerebral growth is one of the main targets of medical caregivers. However, only a few strategies exist to improve the outcomes of infants in a pathogen-rich and nutrient-poor neonatal intensive care unit environment.In this pilot study, we hypothesize that synbiotics may enhance brain growth, which is reflected indirectly by an increase in head circumference through several signalling molecules. Methods: A pilot study was conducted in preterm infants with a gestational age of ≤32 weeks and a birth weight of ≤1500 grams at neonatal intensive care unit of Uludag Univeristy Medical Faculty (NICU) for one-year period. Following the randomization of the infants, a prepared commercial synbiotic solution containing multi-combined probiotics and prebiotics was administered enterally to the study group. Results: The odds of a patient having a lower body weight and head circumference below the 10th percentile were significantly lower in the probiotic group (p=0.001, p=0.03, respectively). Moreover, the infants in the synbiotics group had a more optimal head circumference (between the 50th and 90th percentiles, p=0.001). Conclusions: Our results show that if we can maintain optimal gut microbiota, we might achieve better neuro-development via the beneficial effects of synbiotics on cytokines, neurotransmitters, and the cellular immunity of the nervous system. Further investigational models are needed to demonstrate the beneficial effects of synbiotics on the central nervous system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congenital heart tumors are very rare and the most common type is the rhabdomyoma. Frequency during autopsy is between 0.027-0.08%. Moreover 51-86% of these tumors are associated with tuberosclerosis. Also hamartomas might accompany, particularly on the central nervous system and skin, kidney, liver, lung and heart. In this paper, two cases diagnosed with tuberculosis who showed rhabdomyomas in fetal echocardiography in the antenatal period and were seen to have tubers in cranial magnetic resonance (MR) postnatally, are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]