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Aim Method Results Interpretation To investigate the impact of severe neonatal brain injury (SNBI) on gestational age‐related trends in neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) outcome in infants born very preterm.A population‐based cohort study recruited 1091 infants born at a gestational age of less than 31 weeks between 2011 and 2020. The trends in neonatal morbidities, mortality, and 24‐month NDI severity (no/mild, moderate, severe) by epoch (2011–2015, 2016–2020) and gestational age (22–25 weeks, 26–28 weeks, 29–30 weeks) were determined in infants with and without SNBI inclusion.There was increased antenatal steroid use and higher maternal education and socioeconomic status over time. The rates of neonatal morbidities and mortality had no temporal changes. Among 825 infants with follow‐up, those in the 22 to 25 weeks gestational age group had declining trends in cerebral palsy and severe cognitive impairment, with decreased rates of severe NDI from 19% to 8% across epochs, particularly in those without SNBI (from 16% to 2%). Relative to its occurrence in epoch 2011 to 2015, risk of severe NDI was significantly reduced in epoch 2016 to 2020 (adjusted relative risk 0.39, 95% confidence interval 0.16–0.96) for infants born at 22 to 25 weeks gestational age, and the risk dropped even lower in these infants without SNBI (0.12, 0.02–0.84).Infants born at 22 to 25 weeks gestational age had decreased rates of severe NDI in the decade between 2011 and 2020, particularly those without SNBI. The improvement might be attributed to better perinatal/neonatal and after‐discharge care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Preterm neonates often receive a variety of duration of antibiotic exposure during admission. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether neonatal antibiotic exposure is relevant with longitudinal growth problems in preterm-birth children. Methods: This prospective study enrolled 481 infants who were born <32 weeks of gestation, discharged, and longitudinally followed from corrected age (CA) 6–60 months. After excluding 153 infants with blood culture-confirmed bacteremia, necrotizing enterocolitis, severe cerebral palsy, intestinal ostomy, and congenital anomaly, 328 infants were included for analysis. Covariates included perinatal demographics, neonatal morbidities, extrauterine growth restriction, and antibiotic exposure accumulated by term equivalent age. The primary outcome was the anthropometric trajectories in z-score of bodyweight (zBW), body height (zBH), and body mass index (zBMI) from CA 6–60 months. Results: Antibiotic exposure duration was significantly negatively associated with zBW and zBH at CA 6, 12, and 60 months, and zBMI at CA 60 months. Multivariate generalized estimating equation analyses showed antibiotic exposure duration had significantly faltering z-score increment from CA 6 to 60 months in zBW and zBH (adjusted mean [95% CI]; ΔzBW: −0.021 [−0.041 to −0.001], p = 0.042; ΔzBH: −0.019 [−0.035 to −0.002], p = 0.027) after adjustment. Children with neonatal antibiotic exposure duration >15 days were significantly lower in the mean anthropometric zBW, zBH, and zBMI at CA 6, 12, 24, and 60 months compared with children with neonatal antibiotic exposure ≤15 days (all p < 0.01). Conclusions: Growth increments were negatively associated with antibiotic exposure duration in preterm neonates implicating that antibiotic stewardship and growth follow-up for preterm neonates are thus warranted. Plain Language Summary: Preterm infants often receive a variety of antibiotic exposure duration during admission. This study was to evaluate whether neonatal antibiotic exposure is associated with longitudinal growth problems in preterm-birth children. This study followed a cohort of 328 very preterm infants born <32 weeks of gestation, who were discharged from a tertiary hospital without documented neonatal bacterial infection from 2004 to 2016 and received longitudinal follow-up for growth outcomes at their corrected age (CA) 6, 12, 24, and 60 months. We collected perinatal demographics, neonatal morbidities, extrauterine growth restriction, and antibiotic exposure duration by term equivalent age, to associate with trajectories in z-scores of bodyweight (zBW), body height (zBH), and body mass index (zBMI) from CA 6–60 months. We found antibiotic exposure duration was negatively associated with zBW and zBH at CA 6, 12, and 60 months, and zBMI at CA 60 months. After adjustments, antibiotic exposure duration was associated with decreased growth velocity in zBW and zBH from CA 6–60 months. Children with longer antibiotic exposure >15 days had significantly lower zBW, zBH, and zBMI at CA 6, 12, 24, and 60 months compared with children with antibiotic exposure ≤15 days (all p < 0.01), suggesting that longer antibiotic exposure duration was associated with inferior weight and height gains. This study concludes that long-term growth increments may negatively associate with neonatal antibiotic exposure duration in children born very premature, implicating that antibiotic stewardship and growth follow-up for preterm neonates are thus warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundMobile health apps have emerged as useful tools for patients and clinicians alike, sharing health information or assisting in clinical decision-making. Prostate cancer (PCa) risk calculator mobile apps have been introduced to assess risks of PCa and high-grade PCa (Gleason score ≥7). The Rotterdam Prostate Cancer Risk Calculator and Coral–Prostate Cancer Nomogram Calculator apps were developed from the 2 most-studied PCa risk calculators, the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) and the North American Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) risk calculators, respectively. A systematic review has indicated that the Rotterdam and Coral apps perform best during the prebiopsy stage. However, the epidemiology of PCa varies among different populations, and therefore, the applicability of these apps in a Taiwanese population needs to be evaluated. This study is the first to validate the PCa risk calculator apps with both biopsy and prostatectomy cohorts in Taiwan. ObjectiveThe study’s objective is to validate the PCa risk calculator apps using a Taiwanese cohort of patients. Additionally, we aim to utilize postprostatectomy pathology outcomes to assess the accuracy of both apps with regard to high-grade PCa. MethodsAll male patients who had undergone transrectal ultrasound prostate biopsies in a single Taiwanese tertiary medical center from 2012 to 2018 were identified retrospectively. The probabilities of PCa and high-grade PCa were calculated utilizing the Rotterdam and Coral apps, and compared with biopsy and prostatectomy results. Calibration was graphically evaluated with the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test. Discrimination was analyzed utilizing the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Decision curve analysis was performed for clinical utility. ResultsOf 1134 patients, 246 (21.7%) were diagnosed with PCa; of these 246 patients, 155 (63%) had high-grade PCa, according to the biopsy results. After confirmation with prostatectomy pathological outcomes, 47.2% (25/53) of patients were upgraded to high-grade PCa, and 1.2% (1/84) of patients were downgraded to low-grade PCa. Only the Rotterdam app demonstrated good calibration for detecting high-grade PCa in the biopsy cohort. The discriminative ability for both PCa (AUC: 0.779 vs 0.687; DeLong’s method: P

Aim: To determine the risk patterns associated with transient hearing impairment (THI) and permanent hearing loss (PHL) of infants born very preterm who failed hearing screenings. Method: We enrolled 646 infants (347 males, 299 females) born at no more than 30 weeks' gestation between 2006 and 2020 who received auditory brainstem response screening at term‐equivalent age. Audiological examinations of infants who failed the screening revealed THI, when hearing normalized, or PHL, defined as a persistent unilateral or bilateral hearing threshold above 20 dB. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to characterize risk patterns. Results: Among the 646 infants, 584 (90.4%) had normal hearing, 42 (6.5%) had THI, and 20 (3.1%) had PHL. Compared with the group with normal hearing, the THI and PHL groups had significantly higher rates of neurodevelopmental impairment at 24 months corrected age. PCA of risk patterns showed the THI group and especially the PHL group had more severe haemodynamic and respiratory instability. Moreover, severe intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) was also a risk for PHL. Propensity score matching revealed an association of haemodynamic and respiratory instability with PHL. Interpretation: In infants born preterm, the severity and duration of haemodynamic and respiratory instability are risk patterns for both THI and PHL; severe IVH is an additional risk for PHL. What this paper adds: Neurodevelopmental delay was more common in infants born preterm who failed hearing screening.Principal component analysis revealed the risk patterns associated with hearing impairment.Haemodynamic–respiratory instability was associated with transient and permanent hearing impairment outcomes.Severe haemodynamic–respiratory instability and intraventricular haemorrhage was associated with permanent hearing loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is considered a neurovascular disease. We investigated whether ROP, mild or severe, is associated with neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) in extremely preterm children. Methods: We conducted a multicenter retrospective cohort study in southern Taiwan. A total of 394 children <28 weeks of gestation who survived to discharge from 2011 to 2018 received neurodevelopmental assessment at corrected age of 24 months. Severe ROP was defined as ROP of stages 2 plus or worse, or recipients of retinal therapy, and mild ROP as stage 1 or 2 in at least one eye. NDI was defined as cognitive or motor impairment using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, moderate to severe cerebral palsy, or profound hearing loss. Results: Among the 374 children validated for analysis, 157 children (42%) had non-ROP, 145 (39%) mild ROP, and 72 (19%) severe ROP. As ROP severity increased progressively from non-ROP, to mild ROP, and to severe ROP, the rates of NDI increased from 25%, to 46%, and to 61%. The multivariable logistic regression showed that the model included three levels of ROP, and neonatal morbidities achieved better overall performance for NDI than the model that included neonatal morbidities alone. Compared with non-ROP, mild ROP and severe ROP had adjusted odds ratios of 1.90 (95% CI: 1.10–3.28) and 2.75 (95% CI: 1.33–5.67) for NDI, respectively. Conclusion: Mild ROP and severe ROP are independent neonatal morbidities associated with NDI. Neurodevelopmental follow-up of extremely preterm children with any stage of ROP is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]