Fetuses and newborns

Similar to the stool analysis used to diagnose organ deficiencies [162-167], Infante et al. used NIR to put in place a feeding regiment for constipated infants based on the measure of the stool s water content [223]. 

The analysis of amniotic fluid was used by Liu et al. to determine the fetal lung maturity [224], and Power et al. [225] looked at the possibility to assess preterm births. Authors found that NIR could differentiate between the metabolic profiles of second trimester women delivering at term and those at preterm. 

The fetus was considered in a paper by Vishnoi et al. [226]. In this paper, they describe the measurement of photon migration through the fetal head in utero using a continuous wave NIR system. The same topic was addressed by Ramanujam et al. [227], using antepartum, transabdominal 

NIR spectroscopy. A similar paper by Calvano et al. [228] discusses amni-oscopic endofetal illumination with infrared (NIR) guided fiber. 

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Kolb E et al. (1991) Ascorbic acid concentration in plasma, in amniotic and allantoic fluids, in the placenta and in 13 tissues of sheep fetuses and newborn lambs. Dtsch Tierarztl Wochenschr. 98(11) 424 127. 

Levothyroxine (also marketed as Levoxyl, Levothroid, Synthroid, or L-thyroxine sodium) is the only thyroid system prescription that has recently featured prominently among the top 200 medications in the United States. Thus, 75.1 million, 80.7 million, and 79.4 million levothyroxine prescriptions were dispensed in 2003, 2004, and 2005, respectively. At these rates, levothyroxine by itself comprised 3.5, 2.9, and 3.4% of the total prescriptions in the top 200 most popular drugs in the United States in 2003, 2004, and 2005, respectively, making it the most prescribed drug. Levothyroxine is a synthetic version of the natural hormone thyroxine, which is released by the thyroid gland. The natural hormone is important in the development of fetuses and newborns, playing a role in cmcial processes such as the development... 

American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Drugs (2000) Use of psychoactive medication during pregnancy and possible effects on the fetus and newborn. Pediatrics 105 880-887. 

Committee on Fetus and Newborn. Postnatal corticosteroids to treat or prevent chronic lung disease in preterm infants. Pediatrics 2002 109(2) 330-8. 

The blood-brain barrier in the fetus and newborn infant is highly permeable for chemicals, since it develops gradually a permeability comparable to that of the adult only by the first year of life (ref. 3). 

D.E. Hutchings, Neurobehavioral effects of prenatal origin drugs of use and abuse, in R.H. Schwartz and S.J. Yaffe (Eds.), Drug and Chemical Risks to the Fetus and Newborn, Alan R. Liss, New York, 1980, pp. 109-114. 

In addition to the organs responsible for the development and maintenance of the fetus and newborn, l,25(OH)2D3 receptors have also been localized in several organs from the reproductive apparatus such as the uterus [71], ovary [72] and testis [73]. Since these tissues are not directly associated with calcium translocations, the presence of l,25(OH)2D3 receptors may be related to a role of the hormone in cellular proliferation, differentiation and/or maturation. Accordingly, the levels of testicular l,25(OH)2D3 receptors have been found to correlate with the meiotic and mitotic development of the spermatogonia [73], Clearly, more studies are needed in this area to clarify the role of the vitamin D hormone in these tissues. However,... 

With the above discussion in mind, it is possible to predict at least some of the consequences to the fetus and newborn of an elevated maternal blood glucose concentration, such as occurs in diabetes nielli tus (Cowett, 1998). As the maternal blood glucose level increases, the gradient between fetal and maternal blood glucose... 

Histochemical methods have been used to follow changes in the acid mucopolysaccharides of human aortic tissue. Bertelsen and Jensen (1960) examined aortas from subjects up to 90 years old including some fetuses. The aortic tissue was found to contain both hyaluronic acid and sulfated mucopolysaccharides. The aortas of fetus and newborn contained 4iyalu-ronic acid as the major component. In aging the amount of sulfated polysaccharides increases up to about 50 years, especially in the media and intima, and after this time it is nearly constant. After 20 years of age, a periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) positive material is deposited in increasing amounts in the media and later in the intima. It was thought likely that the acid mucopolysaccharides are elaborated by the fibroblasts and the... 

Tryptophan pyrrolase activity is lacking in fetal liver of rat and rabbit and appears late in gestation in the guinea pig. In the fetus and newborn of these animals the metabolism of tryptophan to nicotinic acid is decreased or completely absent (Nl). 

American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Fetus and Newborn and Committee on Drugs. Benzyl alcohol toxic agent in neonatal units. Pediatrics 1983, 72, 356-358. 

Ciguatera, caused by ingested ciguatoxins and maitotoxins, can reportedly be sexually transmitted. There are also reports of acute health effects of ciguatera toxin in the fetus and newborn child exposed through placental and breast milk transmission from the mother. 

Papantoniou NE, Papapetrou PD, AntsakUs AJ, Kon-toleon PE, Mesogitis SA, Aravantinos D. Circulating levels of immunoreactive parathyroid hormone-related protein and intact parathyroid hormone in human fetuses and newborns. Eur J Endocrinol 1996 134 437-42. 

Widdowson EM. Growth and composition of the human fetus and newborn. In Assali NS, ed. Biology of Gestation. Academic, New York, 1968, pp. 1-49. 

Baker CJ, Edwards MS. Group B streptococcal infections. In Remington JS, Klein JO, eds. Infectious Diseases of the Fetus and Newborn Infant, 4th ed. Philadelphia, Saunders, 1995 980-1054. 

To achieve the synthesis of cortisol, and possibly to a lesser extent corticosterone, it seems probable that the fetus and newborn infant can utilize a pathway which bypasses progesterone. The low activity of ZjS-HSD in the fetus and in infancy which has already been mentioned in Section 4 would be expected to cause an inhibition in the normal pathway of cortisol synthesis at the stage of conversion of pregnenolone into progesterone. Increased use of secondary pathways for corticoid synthesis via 21-OH-pregnenolone or 17a-OH-pregnenolone would then occur, with... 

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