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Unequal distribution of uteroplacental blood flow between twins, aberrant placental insertion of the umbilical cord and TTTS represent contributing causes of birth-weight discordance in monochorionic twins. Coarctation of the aorta (CoA) is an abnormal narrowing of the aorta which can occur as an isolated defect or in association with other intracardiac anomalies, in syndromic and non-syndromic patients, with a prevalence of 4 per 1000 live births1. 5 van den Boom J, Battin M, Hornung T. Twin-twin transfusion syndrome, coarctation of the aorta and hypoplastic aortic arch: a case series report. [Extracted from the article]

Over the last decade, the survival of premature babies has improved dramatically. Such infants, especially those with extremely low birth weight, are still affected by dangerous complications occurring during the neonatal period that often cause brain damage. Intraventricular-intraparenchymal haemorrhage (IVH-IPH), periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), seizures, meningitis and hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy are the most common complications. Such problems require more specialized monitoring of brain function during this critical period. In recent years, many studies on very premature infants have shown that aEEG has a high predictive value for both short-term and long-term outcome. In fact, it has been proven that some types of background activity patterns, the absence of a sleep-wake cycle, and seizure activity are related to the onset of early complications such as IVH-IPH and PVL. Most recent studies have shown that an aEEG performed in the early hours or during the first days of life can predict the neurobehavioural development of preterm infants at 2 years and 3 years (Bayley Scale). In particular our study demonstrates that loss of sleep-wake cycling, shown by aEEG, has a high positive predictive value for the development of posthaemorrhagic hydrocephalus (PPH) in preterm infants with IVH; therefore, the study of cerebral background activity and in particular of sleep-wake cycling can be used as an early prognostic tool in patients at risk of PPH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]