A b s t r a c t Hypotrophic newborn is a newborn with birth weight below the 5th percentile weight of corresponding gestational age. Hypotrophic infants have higher morbidity and mortality in comparison with eutrophic neonates. A higher incidence of hypoglycemia, polycythemia, hyperbilirubinemia, thrombocytopenia, perinatal asphyxia and caesarean section occurs typically in hypotrophic newborns. Both, intrauterine hemodynamic dysbalance and centralization of circulation due to hypotrophy cause decreased blood flow to the splanchnic circulation after the birth. There was observed a lower increase in blood flow through the coeliac artery and superior mesenteric artery in comparison with eutrophic newborns during the first postnatal week. These facts are likely to be associated with a higher frequency of abdominal problems and necrotizing enterocolitis.

Important changes occur in splanchnic circulation during the first 6 h after birth. The rise in end-diastolic velocity in the superior mesenteric artery from negative to positive values in 83% of healthy term newborns is the most important change.

A b s t r a c t Significant hemodynamic changes happen in the abdominal region at the moment of birth and during the first week of life in premature newborns. The aim of the study was to assess early postnatal changes of Doppler sonographic blood flow parameters in the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) occurring during the first three days of life in late preterm infants. 10 infants were enrolled into the prospective study. Abdominal blood flow velocities (ABFV) in the SMA were obtained at the age of 2, 24 and 72 hours (h), before feeding. Screening parameters included the peak systolic velocity (PSV), end-diastolic velocity (EDV), time-averaged mean velocity (TAMV). Doppler indices (DI) -resistance index (RI) and pulsatility index (PI) were calculated. EDV changed significantly from 2 h to 24 h [-13.08 cm/s (-20.46 --9.34) to 12.79 cm/s (11.83 -24.72); p < 0.01] with a further statistically insignificant increase within 72 h [12.79 cm/s (11.83 -24.72) to 17.90 cm/s (16.93 -19.25)]. The EDV values were negative in 9 out of l0 neonates at 2 h of age. The SMA PSV showed a daily increase from 2 h to 72 h. The ABFV and characteristics of vascular resistance (DI) in the SMA change significantly in near term infants within the first 3 days. At 2 h of age a negative blood flow and elevated parameters characterizing vascular resistance were documented in the superior mesenteric artery.

AbstractsResults A total of 5565 births were included in the EPIPAGE 2 study: 1752 were born extremely preterm (898 (51%) stillbirths and 854 (49%) live births), 2728 very preterm (298 (11%) stillbirths and 2430 (89%) live births), and 1085 moderately preterm (28 (2.5%) stillbirths and 1057 (97.5%) live births). The survival rates for extremely preterm babies were 23% of all births and 48% of live births. The corresponding survival rates were respectively 83% and 93% at 27-31 weeks and 96% and 99% at 32-34 weeks. In 1997 (EPIPAGE 1 study), the survival rates were 20% of all births and 46% of live births at 22-26 weeks and 76% of all births and 88% of live births at 27-31 weeks. Conclusion Survival has improved among very preterm children, but has not changed at extremely low gestational ages. ALTERED FRONTO-TEMPORAL NEUROANATOMY IN VERY PRETERM BORN ADULTS DURING COMPLETION OF Centro de Investigaciones Medico-Sanitarias (CIMES), C/Marques de Beccaria 3, Malaga, SpainBackground and aims Several studies have described poorer cognitive performance in various aspects of language such as comprehension, naming, expressive language and verbal fluency in individuals who were born very preterm compared to controls. Neuroimaging investigations have also described structural and functional changes that could underlie such language deficits. In this pilot study we used functional MRI to explore whether alterations in the neuroanatomy of phonological verbal fluency persisted into adulthood following very preterm birth. Methods Twenty-two young adults (26-28 years old, females=11, males=11) were examined. Eleven individuals were born very preterm (gestational age: < 33 weeks) and 11 were full-term born controls. All participants underwent functional MRI using a 3T scanner while completing a phonological verbal fluency task. All data pre-and postprocessing was performed using FSL (www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl). Results During successful verbal fluency trials, very pretermborn individuals showed significantly decreased blood-oxygenlevel-dependent signal compared to controls in several brain areas including the orbitofrontal/medial frontal cortex bilaterally (x=8mm, y=52mm, z= -28mm) and the left fusiform/parahippocampal gyrus (x= -34mm, y= -30mm, z= -24mm), p<0.05 family wise-error corrected (FWE). On-line performance did not significantly differ between the groups. Conclusions Previous studies with functional MRI in younger samples have shown neuroanatomical alterations (increased and decreased activation) in fronto-temporal and fronto-striatal networks in very preterm born individuals when performing different cognitive tasks. Our results suggest that neuroanatomical alterations during language processing persist into adult life following very pre-term birth, and specifically involve fronto-temporal networks, with important implications for a wide range of high order cognitive functions.