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Tobias Strunk MD, PhD, FRACP Head, Neonatal Health tobias.strunk@thekids.org.au Head, Neonatal Health Clinical Professor Tobias Strunk is a
Preterm infants are particularly susceptible to bacterial late-onset sepsis (LOS). Diagnosis by blood culture and inflammatory markers have sub-optimal sensitivity and specificity and prolonged reporting times. There is an urgent need for more rapid, accurate adjunctive diagnostics in LOS to improve management and minimise antibiotic exposure.
Blood responses in very preterm infants with LOS are characterised by altered host immune responses that appear to reflect unbalanced immuno-metabolic homeostasis
Palivizumab appeared effective for reducing virologically confirmed respiratory syncytial virus in this high-risk cohort
This study aimed to assess whether undertaking retrieval was associated with fatigue independent of sleep and circadian disruption. It also aimed to assess the feasibility of routinely measuring the psychomotor vigilance test on neonatal transport. Fatigue is associated with impaired clinician performance and safety.
Delayed cord clamping (DCC) is an evidence-based intervention that reduces mortality, anaemia and disability in infants born <37 weeks' gestation who do not require immediate resuscitation. However, it is neither reliably recorded nor routinely implemented in Australia. The Wait a Minute or More study aims to reduce this gap between the evidence and practice by integrating timely sharing of cord clamping data with Evidence-based Practice for Improving Quality methods to increase the proportion of preterm infants receiving DCC for 60s or longer (DCC60).
Gut microbiota play a critical role in long-term health by supporting metabolism, immune function, inflammation regulation, and neurological development via the gut–brain axis. Beneficial bacteria enhance gut integrity through short-chain fatty acid production, pathogen inhibition, and mucosal barrier support.
We compared mortality and morbidity of inborn versus outborn very preterm infants <32 weeks' gestation in Western Australia (WA) between 2005 and 2018
Machine learning (ML) algorithms are powerful tools that are increasingly being used for sepsis biomarker discovery in RNA-Seq data. RNA-Seq datasets contain multiple sources and types of noise (operator, technical and non-systematic) that may bias ML classification. Normalisation and independent gene filtering approaches described in RNA-Seq workflows account for some of this variability and are typically only targeted at differential expression analysis rather than ML applications.
With advances in perinatal care, we have achieved major reductions in mortality in premature and critically ill infants, but they still remain at increased risk of neurodevelopmental disability. In this context, recent advances in neuroimaging are perceived as an addition of significant value to current clinical developmental screening programs.