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Dr Vincent Mancini, a Senior Research Fellow at The Kids Research Institute Australia, has been awarded a prestigious three-year Fellowship to develop and implement an intervention to support the welfare of regional WA fathers and families in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

A project to uncover treatable traits to improve the lung health of people born preterm has been made possible thanks to a $1.99 million Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) grant. 

This prospective longitudinal study examined changes in milk sodium concentration (Na) and sodium:potassium ratio (Na:K), microbiological culture, milk production, and breast health in relation to mastitis after preterm birth.

Extremely preterm infant survival has significantly improved with advanced neonatal care; however outcomes of infants born with birth weight ≤500 g remain poor. We aimed to review outcomes of this cohort in our Institution.

Parent-infant interactions provide the foundation for the development of infant socioemotional wellbeing. Preterm birth can have a substantial, and often detrimental, impact on the quality of early parent-infant interactions. Sensory processing difficulties, common in preterm infants, are further associated with poorer interaction quality.

It is known that a previous preterm birth increases the risk of a subsequent preterm birth, but a limited number of studies have examined this beyond two consecutive pregnancies. This study aimed to assess the risk and patterns of (recurrent) preterm birth up to the fourth pregnancy.

Previous studies have reported an association between low birthweight and elevated blood pressure (BP) in adulthood, but few have examined the relationship between foetal growth and adult BP.

Evidence indicates that multistrain probiotics benefit preterm infants more than single-strain (SS) probiotics. We assessed the effects of SS versus triple-strain (TS) probiotic supplementation (PS) in extremely preterm (EP) infants.

Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) collection is a non-invasive, safe method for measurement of biomarkers in patients with lung disease. Other methods of obtaining samples from the lungs, such as bronchoalveolar lavage, are invasive and require anaesthesia/sedation in neonates and infants. EBC is particularly appealing for assessing biomarkers in preterm-born infants, a population at risk of ongoing lung disease.

Although preterm birth is associated with later deficits in lung function, there is a paucity of information on geographical differences and whether improvements occur over time, especially after surfactant was introduced.