Active clinical trials for "Enterocolitis"

Amniotic fluid plays a significant role in fetal gut maturation and development. The human fetus swallows over 200 ml of amniotic fluid per kilogram of weight each day and such swallowing is essential for normal small bowel development.Growth factors found in the amniotic fluid have been shown to promote proliferation of fetal intestinal cells. As feeding intolerance is a common problem among neonates recovering from surgery for congenital bowel abnormalities, the investigators will study the role of enteral administration of simulated amniotic fluid solution in prevention of feeding intolerance and NEC in neonates recovering from GIT surgeries.

With premature newborn increase survival, the risk of serious neonatal morbidity, such as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), also increased. NEC affects between 2 to 7% of premature infants including 5 to 22% of newborns weighing less than 1000 g. NEC is an acquired disease, caused by inflammation of the intestinal lining. It is the most common life-threatening gastrointestinal emergency of prematurity, associated with a significant morbidity and mortality. The etiology and physiopathology are multifactorial, complex, and remain poorly understood. The mechanism of the lesions seems to involve factors including immaturity of the intestinal barrier and the immune system, microvascular imbalance, disturbed gut flora and systemic inflammation. Despite improved knowledge about this disease, the proportion of surviving patients has not improved for several years. It frequently leads to long-term sequelae depending on the severity of the NEC and its treatment. Early diagnosis and early treatment of NEC may reduce the risk of mortality and morbidity. The aim of this retrospective bi-centric study is to look for risk factors allowing the prediction of NEC in order to prevent and improve the early management of this disease.

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization have recently published recommendations related to placental transfusions in preterm infants. This project will review outcomes of preterm infants following a quality improvement implementation process in several delivery centers in Indiana. Centers involved in this project are also part of the Indiana Vermont Oxford Network (IRB#1003-84). Data is recorded for that network and the investigators site will be reviewing that data every 3 months from infants who have completed the Vermont Oxford Network collection. This project will specifically look at the incidence of intraventricular hemorrhage, necrotizing entercolitis, periventricular leukomalacia, sepsis and death following the implementation of the ACOG recommendations.

The human fetus swallows over 200 ml of amniotic fluid per kilogram of weight each day and such swallowing is essential for normal small bowel development.Growth factors found in the amniotic fluid have been shown to promote proliferation of fetal intestinal cells. As feeding intolerance is a common problem among premature neonates, the investigators will study the role of enteral administration of simulated amniotic fluid solution in prevention of feeding intolerance and NEC in premature neonates.

The investigators will collect daily faecal samples from premature (<32 weeks) infants in the intensive care unit from the day of birth until they are discharged. By using newly developed molecular detection techniques the investigators aim to define more precisely than has ever previously been attempted, all the species of bacteria present in the faeces. This will enable comparison of the pre-morbid and post-morbid intestinal microbiota (all the bacteria in the gut) in premature neonates.

This research seeks to establish a neonatal DNA Tissue Bank to find out if differences in small segments of DNA predispose babies to Chronic Lung Disease (CLD), Periventricular Brain Injury (PVI), Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC), or Hypoxic Respiratory Failure (HRF).

NEC is a serious inflammatory bowel disease, which almost only strikes infants with low birth weight and low gestational age. The morbidity and mortality rates are high, and early diagnosis and treatment is mandatory. The primary aim of the present study is to investigate the clinical use of intragastric microdialysis and whether it is able to select patients, who may benefit from either medical or surgical therapy. The aim of intraperitoneal microdialysis is to evaluate whether changes in intraperitoneal microdialysis reflect the clinical outcome after laparotomy.

The overarching aim of this project is to determine the optimum enteral and parenteral nutrition strategy for newborns with Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy (HIE) during and after therapeutic hypothermia. To do this the investigators will perform two primary comparisons: ENTERAL: to determine whether any enteral (milk) feeding, when compared to withholding enteral feeding (no milk), during therapeutic hypothermia, is associated with a difference in the incidence of necrotising enterocolitis. PARENTERAL: to determine whether provision of intravenous dextrose, when compared to provision of parenteral nutrition, during therapeutic hypothermia, is associated with a difference in the incidence of blood stream infection. The investigators will use de-identified data held in an established research database called the National Neonatal Research Database (NNRD) and we will use the potential outcomes framework with application of propensity scoring to define matched subgroups for comparison.

The clinical study involves a French network of 20 neonatology centres created as part of the EPIFLORE project. Investigators propose including all premature babies with confirmed necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) diagnosis (Bell stage II or III) paired with a control group of healthy premature babies, over a 2-year period. The clinical data will be entered at inclusion until departure from the department, and the ASQ (Ages and Stages Questionnaires) will be collected after 24 months. Samples from NEC cases and from the control group will be submitted for microbiological testing by culture and pyrosequencing. This will enable the main aerobic micro-organisms in the dominant and subdominant intestinal microbiota to be isolated. This case-control study will be used to compile a collection of clinical and microbiological data, in order to confirm the role of bacteria in the pathophysiology of NEC, and to confirm the involvement of bacteria from the Clostridium genus in particular.

Nowadays feeding intolerance (FI) is a common condition among preterm infants. It has been estimated that 16%-29% of premature infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) develop feeding intolerance at some point during their length of stay. The most frequent signs of FI are the presence of abdominal distension, abundant and/or bilious gastric residuals and vomiting suggesting an inability of the infant to further tolerate enteral nutrition, it increases with decreasing in gestational age (GA) and birth weight (BW). FI represents one of the most uncontrollable variables in the early nutritional management of these infants, and may lead to suboptimal nutrition, delayed attainment of full enteral feeding and prolonged parenteral nutrition supply. NIRS has been used in preterm infants to evaluate changes in cerebral perfusion and oxygenation. It provides real time insight into the oxygen delivery, presented as regional oxygen saturation rSO2 with lower values than SpO2 distal pulse-oximetry where is mostly measured as arterialized capillary bed (around 55% vs 98% Oxygen saturation in regional NIRS vs conventional pulse-oximetry). Light easily penetrates the thin tissues of the neonate through bone and soft tissue, particularly the thin capillary bed of the tissues; NIRS provides non-invasive, continuous information on tissue perfusion and oxygen dynamics. This technique uses principles of optical spectrophotometry that make use of the fact that biological material, including the skull, is relatively transparent in the NIR range. Dave et al. evaluated the abdominal tissue oxygenation with NIRS, and showed that preterm infants change their cerebral - splanchnic oxygenation ratios during feedings, mainly because an increasing in the splanchnic oxygenation. Gay et al. performed abdominal NIRS in premature piglets showing association of perfusion/oxygen changes with NEC spectrum. The investigators would like to evaluate the association between feeding intolerance and unchanged splanchnic regional saturation and variation in the cerebral splanchnic ratio. Innovation: FI diagnosis follows a subjective approach, where the clinician is worried in further risk of develop Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). This non-studied relationship (FI and NEC) lower the threshold for the diagnosis of FI. Furthermore, infants with FI diagnosis commonly are subject of stop or slow the progression of feedings, increasing the risk of intestinal villi atrophy, and increase the length of parenteral nutrition support, and also the length of stay in the NICU settings. If NIRS technology help the clinicians to detect true abnormalities objectively as a new monitor assessing adequate feeds progress decreasing failure to feed, and therefore diminishing the need for parenteral feeds and further complication associated with it.