Subcutaneous fat necrosis (SFN) of the newborn is an uncommon disorder of the adipose tissue, mostly affecting full-term or post-term newborns who experience perinatal distress. The lesions of SFN typically occur during the first six weeks of life; they are usually self-limited and no specific therapy is required. The disorder may be rarely complicated with hypercalcaemia. We present the case of a neonate with perinatal asphyxia who manifested SFN followed by hypocalcaemia instead of hypercalcaemia and a biochemical profile of pseudohypoparathyroidism four weeks after the eruption of skin lesions. The infant was treated with alfacalcidiol. Blood biochemistry was normalized within one week and serum parathyroid hormone levels declined to normal over the next two months. It is suggested that perinatal asphyxia was the common etiopathogenetic factor for the development of both SFN and pseudohypoparathyroidism.

Objective: To determine circulating levels of adiponectin in preterm infants and examine possible associations with anthropometric measurements, weight gain, and leptin and insulin levels. Design: Prospective study. Setting: A university hospital neonatal care unit. Study population: 62 preterm (mean (SD) gestational age 32.0 (2.1) weeks) and 15 full-term infants (reference group). Interventions: Blood samples taken at discharge (40.9 (14.8) days of life) from the preterm infants and at a comparable postnatal age in full-term infants. All infants were fed the same commercial formula, but in nine preterms the formula contained long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs). Main outcome measures: Serum levels of adiponectin, leptin and insulin. Associations of adiponectin levels were tested only in the preterm group. Results: Serum levels of adiponectin were lower in preterm (40.9 (14.8) mg/ml) than full-term infants (53.1 (16.0) mg/ml, p,0.01). However, after adjustment for body weight, the influence of prematurity on adiponectin levels was no longer significant. In preterm infants, adiponectin levels independently correlated with being born small for gestational age (SGA) (b = 20.35, p = 0.01), weight gain (b = 0.28, p = 0.03) and LCPUFA-supplemented formula (b = 0.34, p = 0.009). Serum adiponectin levels did not correlate with insulin or leptin levels. However, insulin levels were higher in preterm than in full-term infants after adjustment for body weight. Conclusions: Adiponectin levels are lower in preterm infants at discharge than full-term infants probably due to decreased adiposity. The levels are influenced by being born SGA, weight gain and, possibly, by dietary LCPUFAs. The importance of these findings in the development of insulin or leptin resistance in children born prematurely needs to be further studied. N utrition and growth during fetal life and early infancy have been linked to health and disease in later life.

In the entire study population, serum PYY concentrations correlated negatively with gestational age and anthropometric measurements (birth weight, body weight, body length, body mass index, and head circumference) and positively with serum ghrelin concentrations, whereas there was no significant correlation between PYY concentration and caloric intake or weight gain. Multiple regression analysis, after correction for prematurity, revealed that serum PYY concentrations correlated independently with

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