Inflammatory bowel disease may increase the odds of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) is the administration of isoniazid (INH) to people with latent tuberculosis (TB) infection (LTBI) to prevent progression to active TB disease. Despite being life-saving for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected persons who do not have active TB, IPT is poorly implemented globally due to misconceptions shared by healthcare providers and policy makers. However, amongst HIV-infected patients especially those living in resource-limited settings with a high burden of TB, available evidence speaks for IPT: Among HIV-infected persons, active TB- the major contraindication to IPT, can be excluded with symptom screening; chest X-ray and tuberculin skin testing are unreliable and often lead to logistic delays resulting in increased numbers of people with LTBI progressing to active TB; the use of IPT has not been found to increase the risk of the development of INH mono-resistance; IPT is cost-effective and cheaper than the cost of treating cases of active TB that would develop without IPT; ART and IPT have an additive effect on the prevention of TB, and both are safe and beneficial even in children. In order to sustain the recorded gains from ART scale-up and to further reduce TB-related morbidity and mortality, more efforts are needed to scale-up IPT implementation globally.

No abstract

Background Deformational plagiocephaly (DP) is the abnormal flattening of the skull. Infants with DP have been found to have abnormal brain shape and asymmetry associated with worse neurodevelopmental outcomes on the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-III (BSID-III) compared to those without DP. In 2009, the FDA approved a repositioning Beanie, the TortleTM (Tortle Products LLC, Greenwood Village, CO), for the prevention of flat head syndrome. Purpose Our goal was to assess the impact of the use of the Beanie on the neurodevelopment of preterm infants with DP admitted in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) using the BSID-III. Methods Subjects were identified using a retrospective chart review of infants during January 2013-2017. Infants of less than 32 weeks of gestational age, under 1500 g birth weight, and attending the high-risk follow-up clinic were included in the study. Neurodevelopmental assessment of patients' cognition, language, motor development using the BSID-III was performed at the 12month and 24-month follow-up visits. The BSID-III scores for patients who used the Beanie were compared to those who did not. Results A total of 207 patients met the inclusion criteria. The gestational age ranged from 22.5 to 31.5 weeks with a median and mean gestational age of 26.4 weeks and 26.5 weeks respectively. Of the patients, 105 were females and 102 males. The birth weight ranged between 460 g and 1460 g with a mean of 879 g and a median of 860 g. The Beanie was used in 32 patients; 31 patients were found to use the Beanie at 12 months and 16 patients at 24 months. Of note, 12-month Bayley cognition scores were found to be statistically improved in babies who used the Beanie versus those who did not (p: 0.02). The statistical significance was not appreciated at 24 months, which could be due to a decrease in the sample size. Conclusion The Beanie is an inexpensive and simple way to help prevent DP in preterm infants, which in turn could improve the aforementioned outcomes.

Preterm infants hospitalised in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) have limited exposure to adult words and are at increased risk of language delay. [1][2][3][4] Recent studies demonstrate expressive and receptive language delays among preterm infants, which have clinical implications on learning and social development long term. 5,6 Brain injury and environmental factors further increase these risks. 7 Greater parent involvement in the single-family room NICU has been shown to play a beneficial role in ameliorating cognitive and language delays. 8 Despite optimised room structure to encourage parental presence, several factors limit the ability of NICU parents to provide language-rich environments including infant illness, parental post-traumatic stress and depression,