Search

The purpose of the study was to explore whether the new-born cry is a simple alarm signal or differentiated cries with different meanings 12 digital audio taped recordings of 6 full-term healthy babies were analysed. Cries of 6 newborns in this preliminary study were recorded in a pain condition after a prick for the hematic check-up the third day after delivery and then while crying spontaneously in the cradle. The sounds were sampled at 44100 Hz with a 16-bit resolution and converted to the way format. All the analyses were performed with a software written in the MATLAB© environment. The most important result was that these new-born children modulated the supralaryngeal tract considerably more in cries following the painful stimulus than in “spontaneous” ones, as would be expected by the hypothesis of crying as “protolanguage.”

Background and aims: The guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE 2007) on urinary tract infections (UTI) in childhood led to an epochal change in the management of children with UTI decreasing the number of instrumental evaluations. We used a protocol almost identical to that proposed by NICE. The aim of the study was to describe the 11 years follow-up of children with UTI and to validate our protocols.Methods: We enrolled 406 children (1-36 months) at their first UTI. All the children underwent renal ultrasounds (US). Children with pathological US and those with UTI recurrences underwent voiding cystourethrography (VCUG) and dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) renal scans. All of them were clinically followed up.Results: US after the first episode of UTI were normal in 376 children (92.6%), pathological in 30 (7.4%). 18 patients had a second episode of UTI (4.4%). Second renal US were normal in all of them. We performed 48 VCUG: 30 in children with pathological US and 18 because of UTI recurrences. 14 children had VUR (29%): 12 had a pathological ultrasound and 2 had recurrent UTIs. The same children underwent DMSA scans: renal damage appeared only in 6 children (12.5%); all these children showed VUR of grade IV. The remaining 42 did not show any damage.Conclusions: Our study shows that application of NICE guidelines leads to a significant saving of invasive evaluations without compromising child health. Moreover our data confirm that is unreasonable searching VUR since the first episode of UTI.