The Blood Brain Barrier (BBB)
The BBB or blood brain barrier has always fascinated doctors, scholars and the curious: this bulwark of defence protecting our brain’s purity, is particularly intriguing, both as an idea and as a concept.
VIKTOR, A SPECIAL WARRIOR
Viktor is a Norwish child, who was born with an intraventricular haemorrhage. Thanks to appropriate treatments, he lives normally with his parents and younger sisters.
The intraventricular hemorrhage
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST (by prof. L.A. Ramenghi) WHAT IS INTRAVENTRICOLAR HEMORRHAGE? Intraventricular haemorrhage is a brain lesion that affects predominately preterm infants. It originates from the germinative matrix, which enters into the brain ventricles (some cavities within which the cerebrospinal fluid, a clear and colourless fluid connected between the brain and the spinal cord and the rachis, flows). When blood enters into, it not only gets dirty, but gets irritated […]
PERINATAL ASPHYXIA
Birth is a fascinating adventure. Nonetheless, it is the first real challenge in life precisely because it may involve some dangers; perinatal asphyxia is one of these. BUT WHAT IS PERINATAL ASPHYXIA? It could be defined as a serious complication in the foetal-to-neonatal transition, whereby baby’s vital activities are inefficient. In these cases, the new-born […]
ASSESSMENT OF AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER
when a delay represents instead a first alarm bell Every child has his individuality. Every child learns to walk, to talk, to interact with others in times and modes that are his own characteristics. This is all the truer if the child we are talking about is a child born prematurely: in this case, even […]
Very preterm birth and the home environment
Cognitively stimulating parenting has beneficial effects for very preterm children BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT IN VERY PRETERM CHILDREN Children who were born very preterm (< 33 weeks) are known to exhibit higher rates of inattention, anxiety, and social difficulties compared to children who were born at full term. These behavioural patterns can cause difficulties in day-to-day life […]
FOCUS ON: White matter
The white matter is the part of the brain and spinal cord which contains nerve fibers. It is often juxtaposed to the gray matter, which instead contains the bodies of the neuronal cells. If we imagine the brain as a set of many little computers connected to the same network, the gray matter would be […]
Preterm birth and assistance in school age children
“Special educational needs” is a term used to describe learning difficulties or disabilities that make learning more difficult than the majority of children of the same age. Therefore, children with “special educational needs” require more support than that generally provided to the other students of the same age. In the Italian language and school reality […]
The transfontanellar ultrasound
Today we will discuss a topic that goes beyond the MRI, but that just like the MRI, allows us to “spy” inside the newborn head: the transfontanellar ultrasound. How does it work? During the exam a probe sends ultrasounds inside the newborn head, which reflect on the patterns found and are transmitted back from the […]
Anatomy of the Subependymal veins in the preterm newborns
Below a summary and comment of the article reproduced in full version at the following link. Risk factors and research of Intraventricular Brain Hemorrhages The intraventricular brain hemorrage and the germinative matrix hemorrage (IVH and GMH) are among the main complications of prematurity with consequences such as death or neurological sequelae. As of today, different […]
Looking for Vision: Why talk about newborn vision?
It is a fundamental sensory function, present from birth. The newborn possesses a wide range of well-defined visual abilities: for example, he is capable to fixate and follow a target from the very first hours of life. This is true also for premature babies, that show an appreciable visual ability since the 31st week of […]
Looking for Vision 2 – The visual skills of the premature newborn
Prematurity impacts 7-10% of the newborn population and depicts a different reality between each newborn. A newborn is considered premature if born at less than 37 weeks gestation. Today, thanks to perinatal care, Life Expectancy begins at 23 weeks gestation. How can a premature baby see? Different studies have thought to investigate this fascinating subject.In […]
The respiratory pause in the small premature baby… how long it is!
Is it normal that such a small creature experiences long respiratory pause? Are we sure this doesn’t cause discomfort? Will it cause any problems? Will the baby have enough oxygen? Most of the times we can rest assured, but these doubts, at least initially, can cause anxiety in the parents and sometimes even doctors because […]
Alberto’s extraordinary story
Alberto was born on February 12, 2019, in the United States from a healthy full-term pregnancy and uncomplicated delivery. But at only 2 weeks of life, after 10 perfect days at home with us, his health deteriorated unexpectedly and, after a CT Scan was performed at the Emergency Room, he was diagnosed with Cerebral Venous […]
Looking for Vision 1: Vision in a full-term healthy newborn
what does my newborn see? Visual functions in a newborn are sign of neurological health and efficiency
The first adventure
Each of us has a guardian angel. Some believe, some don’t. I am convinced that my guardian angel lives very close to me. The hard work we carry out every day within such an uncertain field as is mod- ern neonatology sometimes reaches beyond what our deep knowledge, skills, and talents actually are. We continuously […]
Cerebellum
It has mysterious functions (partly). It lives in the darkness, in the posterior cranial fossa. It turns on, hidden behind the great cerebral emispheres. It is also called forward controller. It has a wonderful power: it checks beforehand what the brain is going to do. The Latins named it cerebellum. We celebrate it with a video, during […]
Kernicterus: is the globus pallidus still pale?
Kernicterus is a neurological syndrome secondary to bilirubin’s deposition at basal nuclei and cranial nerves nuclei, due to neonatal icterus. Let’s start from the beginning: what is the icterus? Icterus is a skin or other tissues’ yellow coloration, caused by bilirubin’s accumulation, derived from hemoglobin contained in red blood cells. The newborn has a bilirubin’s increased […]
Andrea’s Story
Andrea was born in Genova at Gaslini Hospital in August 2016, at 25 week and 5 days of gestational age, after a troubleless pregnancy. Doctors told us that prognosis was unpredictable and he would be hospitalized for a long time. So his battle starts: After 2 day the first new: second grade intraventricular hemorrhage. It […]
The importance of breastfeeding
Breastfeeding and cerebral connectivity
