infomama
09-01-2009, 12:12 AM
Not sure how I missed these articles but thought I'd pass them on.
1) There is a non invasive, quick and reliable test available to screen babies for heart defects. (NYT)
Recently, researchers have identified a promising new method called pulse oximetry to screen all babies for heart defects. Taped briefly to a newborn’s foot, a small sensor painlessly beams red light through the foot and measures how much oxygen is in the blood. It takes about a minute. (Picture E.T. the extra-terrestrial’s finger lighting up, and you get the idea.) If the screening test is abnormal, doctors perform a confirmatory ultrasound of the heart. Last year, Norwegian doctors published one of the largest clinical trials of this strategy (http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476%2807%2901187-0/abstract), and checked half of all babies born in the country.
The results were impressive. Within a few hours of birth, pulse oximetry detected three-quarters of critical heart defects that had been previously missed. For every 2,000 newborns screened with the toe light, roughly one with a critical heart defect might have been prevented from going home. The cost-benefit ratio compares favorably to current practices of newborn screening for PKU and hypothyroidism. In January, Swedish doctors published an even more methodical study of almost 40,000 newborns (http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/338/jan08_2/a3037), and showed that oximetry entirely eliminated death from missed critical cardiac defects.
(read the full article here http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/saving-babies-with-broken-hearts/?scp=1&sq=heart%20test%20infants&st=cse)
2) Running a fan in your babies room dramatically lowers the risk of SIDS (circulating the air..not cooling the room) read the whole article here http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/embargo-fan-in-babys-room-lowers-sids-risk/?scp=1&sq=SIDS%20and%20fans&st=cse
1) There is a non invasive, quick and reliable test available to screen babies for heart defects. (NYT)
Recently, researchers have identified a promising new method called pulse oximetry to screen all babies for heart defects. Taped briefly to a newborn’s foot, a small sensor painlessly beams red light through the foot and measures how much oxygen is in the blood. It takes about a minute. (Picture E.T. the extra-terrestrial’s finger lighting up, and you get the idea.) If the screening test is abnormal, doctors perform a confirmatory ultrasound of the heart. Last year, Norwegian doctors published one of the largest clinical trials of this strategy (http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476%2807%2901187-0/abstract), and checked half of all babies born in the country.
The results were impressive. Within a few hours of birth, pulse oximetry detected three-quarters of critical heart defects that had been previously missed. For every 2,000 newborns screened with the toe light, roughly one with a critical heart defect might have been prevented from going home. The cost-benefit ratio compares favorably to current practices of newborn screening for PKU and hypothyroidism. In January, Swedish doctors published an even more methodical study of almost 40,000 newborns (http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/338/jan08_2/a3037), and showed that oximetry entirely eliminated death from missed critical cardiac defects.
(read the full article here http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/saving-babies-with-broken-hearts/?scp=1&sq=heart%20test%20infants&st=cse)
2) Running a fan in your babies room dramatically lowers the risk of SIDS (circulating the air..not cooling the room) read the whole article here http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/embargo-fan-in-babys-room-lowers-sids-risk/?scp=1&sq=SIDS%20and%20fans&st=cse