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Background: A health partnership to improve hospital based neonatal care in Rwanda to reduce neonatal mortality was requested by the Rwandan Ministry of Health. Although many health system improvements have been made, there is a severe shortage of health professionals with neonatal training.Methods: Following a needs assessment, a health partnership grant for 2 years was obtained. A team of volunteer neonatologists and paediatricians, neonatal nurses, lactation consultants and technicians with experience in Rwanda or low-income countries was assembled. A neonatal training program was provided in four hospitals (the 2 University hospitals and 2 district hospitals), which focused on nutrition, provision of basic respiratory support with nasal CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), enhanced record keeping, thermoregulation, vital signs monitoring and infection control. To identify if care delivery improved, audits of nutritional support, CPAP use and its complications, and documentation in newly developed neonatal medical records were conducted. Mortality data of neonatal admissions was obtained.Results: Intensive neonatal training was provided on 27 short-term visits by 10 specialist health professionals. In addition, a paediatric doctor spent 3 months and two spent 6 months each providing training. A total of 472 training days was conducted in the neonatal units. For nutritional support, significant improvements were demonstrated in reduction in time to initiation of enteral feeds and to achieve full milk feeds, in reduction in maximum postnatal weight loss, but not in days for regaining birth weight. Respiratory support with bubble CPAP was applied to 365 infants in the first 18 months. There were no significant technical problems, but tissue damage, usually transient, to the nose and face was recorded in 13%. New medical records improved documentation by doctors, but nursing staff were reluctant to use them. Mortality for University teaching hospital admissions was reduced from 23.6% in the 18 months before the project to 21.7%. For the two district hospitals, mortality reduced from 10% to 8.1%. A major barrier to training and improved care was low number of nurses working on neonatal units and staff turnover.Conclusion: This health partnership delivered an intensive program of capacity building by volunteer specialists. Improved care and documentation were demonstrated. CPAP was successfully introduced. Mortality was reduced. This format can be adapted for further training and improvement programs to improve the quality of facility-based care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many pathologies seen in the preterm population are associated with abnormal blood supply, yet robust evaluation of preterm cardiac function is scarce and consequently normative ranges in this population are limited. The aim of this study was to quantify and validate left ventricular dimension and function in preterm infants using cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). An initial investigation of the impact of the common congenital defect patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) was then carried out. Methods: Steady State Free Procession short axis stacks were acquired. Normative ranges of left ventricular end diastolic volume (EDV), stroke volume (SV), left ventricular output (LVO), ejection fraction (EF), left ventricular (LV) mass, wall thickness and fractional thickening were determined in “healthy” (control) neonates. Left ventricular parameters were then investigated in PDA infants. Unpaired student t-tests compared the 2 groups. Multiple linear regression analysis assessed impact of shunt volume in PDA infants, p-value ≤ 0.05 being significant. Results: 29 control infants median (range) corrected gestational age at scan 34+6(31+1-39+3) weeks were scanned. EDV, SV, LVO, LV mass normalized by weight and EF were shown to decrease with increasing corrected gestational age (cGA) in controls. In 16 PDA infants (cGA 30+3 (27+3-36+1) weeks) left ventricular dimension and output were significantly increased, yet there was no significant difference in ejection fraction and fractional thickening between the two groups. A significant association between shunt volume and increased left ventricular mass correcting for postnatal age and corrected gestational age existed. Conclusion: CMR assessment of left ventricular function has been validated in neonates, providing more robust normative ranges of left ventricular dimension and function in this population. Initial investigation of PDA infants would suggest that function is relatively maintained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Quantification of aortic pulse wave velocity in preterm infants using 4D phase contrast MRI," by Kathryn Broadhouse, Anthony N. Price, Giuliana Durighel, Anna Finnemore, David J. Cox, A.D. Edwards, Joseph V. Hajnal and Alan Groves is presented.

An abstract of the article "Validation of MRI quantification of biventricular cardiac function in term and preterm neonates," by Anna Finnemore, Anthony N. Price, Giuliana Durighel, Kathryn Broadhouse, David J. Cox, and Alan Groves is presented.

An abstract of the article "Analysis of neonatal cardiac function in infants with and without patent ductus arteriosus," by Kathryn Broadhouse, Anthony N. Price, Giuliana Durighel, Anna Finnemore, David J. Cox, A.D. Edwards, Joseph V. Hajnal, and Alan Groves is presented.

An abstract of the article "Frequency drift during intensive SSFP scanning: implications and solution for 3T neonatal CMR," by Anthony N. Price and colleagues is presented.

The article presents an abstract on a paper titled "Impact of Neonatal Cardiac Receive-Array Coil on SNR and CNR in Newborn Infants," presented at the 2011 Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (CMR)/Euro CMR Joint Scientific Sessions held in France.