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OBJECTIVES: To identify indications for exchange transfusions, assess the use and waste of exchange transfusion products (ie, reconstituted whole blood exchange transfusions), and determine nationwide distribution and prevalence of these transfusions in the Netherlands. STUDY DESIGN: All 9 neonatal intensive care units and 15 non-neonatal intensive care unit hospitals participated in this retrospective, observational, cohort study. We retrieved data on the indications for and use of all exchange transfusion products ordered by participating centers over an 11-year period. RESULTS: A total of 574 patients for whom 1265 products were ordered were included for analyses. Severe ABO (32.6%) and non-ABO (25.2%) immune hemolysis and subsequent hyperbilirubinemia were the most frequent indications. Rare indications were severe leukocytosis in Bordetella pertussis (2.1%) and severe anemia (1.5%). Approximately one-half of all ordered products remained unused. In 278 of 574 neonates (48.4%), ≥1 products were not used, of which 229 (82.7%) were due to the resolving of severe hyperbilirubinemia with further intensification of phototherapy. The overall prevalence of neonates who received an exchange transfusion was 14.6:100 000 liveborn neonates. CONCLUSIONS: A considerable proportion of products remained unused, and annually a limited number of patients are treated with an exchange transfusion in the Netherlands, highlighting the rarity of the procedure in the Netherlands.

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OBJECTIVE: To compare academic attainment at age 12 years in preterm children born below 30 weeks of gestation with matched term-born peers, using standardized, nationwide and well-validated school tests. STUDY DESIGN: This population-based, national cohort study was performed by linking perinatal data from the nationwide Netherlands Perinatal Registry with educational outcome data from Statistics Netherlands and included 4677 surviving preterm children born at 250/7-296/7 weeks of gestational age and 366 561 controls born at 40 weeks of gestational age in 2000-2007. First, special education participation rate was calculated. Subsequently, all preterm children with academic attainment test data derived at age 12 years were matched to term-born children using year and month of birth, sex, parity, socioeconomic status, and maternal age. Total, language, and mathematics test scores and secondary school level advice were compared between these 2 groups. RESULTS: Children below 30 weeks of gestation had a higher special education participation rate (10.2% vs 2.7%, P < .001) than term-born peers. Preterm children had lower total (-0.37 SD; 95% CI -0.42 to -0.31), language (-0.21 SD; 95% CI -0.27 to -0.15), and mathematics (-0.45 SD; 95%CI -0.51 to -0.38) z scores, and more often a prevocational secondary school level advice (62% vs 46%, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: A substantial proportion of children born before 30 weeks of gestation need special education at the end of elementary schooling. These children have significant deficits on all measures of academic attainment at age 12 years, especially mathematics, compared with matched term-born peers.

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OBJECTIVE: To determine whether heart rate variability (HRV) can serve as a surrogate measure to track regulatory changes during kangaroo care, a period of parental coregulation distinct from regulation within the incubator. STUDY DESIGN: Nurses annotated the starting and ending times of kangaroo care for 3 months. The pre-kangaroo care, during-kangaroo care, and post-kangaroo care data were retrieved in infants with at least 10 accurately annotated kangaroo care sessions. Eight HRV features (5 in the time domain and 3 in the frequency domain) were used to visually and statistically compare the pre-kangaroo care and during-kangaroo care periods. Two of these features, capturing the percentage of heart rate decelerations and the extent of heart rate decelerations, were newly developed for preterm infants. RESULTS: A total of 191 kangaroo care sessions were investigated in 11 preterm infants. Despite clinically irrelevant changes in vital signs, 6 of the 8 HRV features (SD of normal-to-normal intervals, root mean square of the SD, percentage of consecutive normal-to-normal intervals that differ by >50 ms, SD of heart rate decelerations, high-frequency power, and low-frequency/high-frequency ratio) showed a visible and statistically significant difference (P <.01) between stable periods of kangaroo care and pre-kangaroo care. HRV was reduced during kangaroo care owing to a decrease in the extent of transient heart rate decelerations. CONCLUSION: HRV-based features may be clinically useful for capturing the dynamic changes in autonomic regulation in response to kangaroo care and other changes in environment and state.

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OBJECTIVES: To test the hypothesis that fecal volatile organic compounds (VOCs) analysis by electronic nose (eNose) allows for early detection of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). STUDY DESIGN: In 3 neonatal intensive care units, fecal samples of infants born at gestational age ≤ 30 weeks were collected daily, up to the 28th day of life. Included infants were allocated in 3 subgroups: NEC, sepsis, and matched controls. Three time windows were defined: (1) T-5,-4 (5 and 4 days before diagnosis); (2) T-3,-2 (3 and 2 days before diagnosis); and (3) T-1,0 (day before and day of diagnosis). Three subgroups were analyzed by eNose. RESULTS: Fecal VOC profiles of infants with NEC (n = 13) could significantly be discriminated from matched controls (n = 14) at T-3,-2 (area under the curve ± 95% CI, P value, sensitivity, specificity: 0.77 ± 0.21, P = .02, 83%, 75%); the accuracy increased at T-1,0 (0.99 ± 0.04, P ≤ .001, 89%, 89%). VOC profiles of infants with NEC were also significantly different from those with sepsis (n = 31) at T-3,-2 (0.80 ± 0.17, P = .004, 83%, 75%), but not at T-1,0 (0.64 ± 0.18, P = .216, 89%, 57%). CONCLUSIONS: In this proof of principle study, we observed that fecal VOC profiles of infants with NEC could be discriminated from controls, from 2-3 days predating onset of clinical symptoms. Our observations suggest that VOC-profiling by eNose has potential as a noninvasive tool for the early prediction of NEC.

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