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R
educed Risk of Brain Injury on
MRI With Early EPO in Preemies
Early administration of high-dose
erythropoietin is associated with
a reduced risk of brain injury on
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in
premature infants, according to research
published in
the Aug. 27
issue of the
Journal of the
American
Medical
Association.
Russia HaVinh Leuchter,
M.D., of the
University
Hospital of
Geneva, and colleagues randomly assigned
infants to receive recombinant human
erythropoietin (256 participants) or placebo
(239 participants) intravenously before three
hours, at 12 to 18 hours, and at 36 to 42 hours
after birth. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
scans acquired at term-equivalent age were
evaluated for a nonrandomized subset of 77
infants receiving erythropoietin and 88
infants receiving placebo.
The researchers found that at term-equivalent
age, fewer infants in the erythropoietin group,
compared with the placebo group, had abnormal
scores for white matter injury, white matter signal
intensity, periventricular white matter loss, and
gray matter injury. The birth weight-adjusted risk
ratio for infants receiving erythropoietin versus
placebo was 0.58 (95 percent confidence interval
[CI], 0.35 to 0.96) for white matter injury; 0.20 (95
percent CI, 0.05 to 0.90) for white matter signal
intensity; 0.53 (95 percent CI, 0.30 to 0.92) for
periventricular white matter loss; and 0.34 (95
percent CI, 0.13 to 0.89) for gray matter injury.
"In an analysis of secondary outcomes of a
randomized clinical trial of preterm infants,
high-dose erythropoietin treatment within 42
hours after birth was associated with a reduced
risk of brain injury on MRI," the authors write.
Two authors disclosed receiving research
grants from Nestle.
H
ealth Care Protective Gear
Lacking in Ebola Outbreak
Health care workers in poor
nations often do not have
enough protective gear to keep
them safe from being infected with bloodborne viruses such as Ebola and HIV,
according to a study published online Aug. 8
in Tropical Medicine & International Health.
The Hopkins researchers analyzed data
from 399 hospitals in 13 low- and middleincome nations: Afghanistan, Bolivia, Gambia,
Ghana, Liberia, Mongolia, Nigeria, Sierra
Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka,
Tanzania, and Zambia. Overall, only 29
percent of the hospitals in the study always
had eye protection for staff, 64 percent always
had sterilizing equipment, and 75 percent
always had sterile gloves.
Rates varied widely among countries. For
example, all hospitals in Bolivia and Nigeria
had sterile gloves, compared with onequarter of hospitals in Afghanistan. None of
the countries had 100 percent availability of
all the protective items, which are standard in
American hospitals. Prevention of HIV
infection was the focus of this study, but the
Ebola virus is spread in the same way, through
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