The aim of this study was to investigate the gut microbiota in preschool children with and without overweight and obesity. Twenty overweight or obese children and twenty children with BMI within the normal range (age: 4–5 years) were recruited from the south of Sweden. The gut microbiota was accessed by quantitative PCR (qPCR) and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and calprotectin was measured in feces. Liver enzymes were quantified in obese/overweight children. The concentration of the gram‐negative family Enterobacteriaceae was significantly higher in the obese/overweight children (P = 0.036), whereas levels of Desulfovibrio and Akkermansia muciniphila‐like bacteria were significantly lower in the obese/overweight children (P = 0.027 and P = 0.030, respectively). No significant differences were found in content of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium or the Bacteroides fragilis group. The diversity of the dominating bacterial community tended to be less diverse in the obese/overweight group, but the difference was not statistically significant. Concentration of Bifidobacterium was inversely correlated to alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in obese/overweight children. The fecal levels of calprotectin did not differ between the study groups. These findings indicate that the gut microbiota differed among preschool children with obesity/overweight compared with children with BMI within the normal range.

Several obstetric risk factors are associated with low 5-minute Apgar score in term infants. Mortality and the risk of severe neurologic morbidity are increased in these infants.

II-2.

This study shows that outcome may be predicted with aEEG already during the first days of life in preterm infants with large IVH. The findings should be confirmed in prospective studies since they may have clinical implications if specific medical interventions become available.

No abstract

Children with low BMI may be at risk of caries development. Low BMI may be associated with eating habits endangering dental health.

Background: There is a controversy regarding the existence of a socio-economic gradient for cerebral palsy. Perinatal emergencies and preterm birth increase the risk for the offspring to develop cerebral palsy. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of socio-economic indicators with cerebral palsy (CP) and the role of perinatal health as mediator of this association.

The astroglial protein S100 is an established biochemical marker for CNS injury in the adult. The aim was to investigate whether S100 in serum is a prognostic marker of cerebral injury in term newborn infants with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) after perinatal asphyxia. Serum S100 was measured on postnatal days 1-4 in 62 term infants with birth asphyxia. The infants were classified for HIE and had follow-up for at least 18 mo. Infants with moderate and severe HIE had significantly higher S100 levels on postnatal day 1 (p ϭ 0.031) and day 2 (p ϭ 0.008) than infants with mild or no HIE. The levels of S100 decreased on days 2 and 3 in all infants with HIE. The median S100 level on postnatal day 1 was higher in nine infants who died neonatally and in 10 infants who developed cerebral palsy (CP), compared with 43 infants with no signs of impairment at follow up, 14.0 (0.5-60.0) g/L, 20.7 (0.2-64.0) g/L and 5.5 (0.7-120.0) g/L, respectively. A level of S100 above 12 g/L the first day of life was significantly more frequent in infants who died or developed CP than in infants with no impairment at follow up (p ϭ 0.02). Increased S100 levels were significantly inversely correlated with perinatal pH in the infants and associated with abnormal CTG at admission to the labor ward. Early determination of serum S100 may reflect the extent of brain damage in infants with HIE after asphyxia. Abbreviations CP, cerebral palsy CSF, cerebrospinal fluid CTG, cardiotocography FHR, fetal heart rate HIE, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy S100, S100 protein including the subunits ␣␤ and ␤␤ aEEG, amplitude integrated EEG GFAP, glial fibrillary acidic protein Birth asphyxia remains a considerable problem in perinatal medicine with an incidence around 0.6 -0.8% of births (1-3). About half of these infants develop hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) (2, 4). Those with moderate and severe HIE are at high risk of developing cerebral palsy (CP) (5-8). Prognostic assessment of brain injury after perinatal asphyxia will become essential for proper selection concerning early cerebroprotective treatment, which might be a likely option in the near future (9, 10). Several biochemical markers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) have been associated with cerebral complications in infants after perinatal asphyxia (11-14) and recently also S100 in CSF (15). A prognostic marker in serum would be of great value. S100 is a calcium binding protein present in the CNS. The dimers ␣␤ and ␤␤ of S100 are mainly specific for the nervous system and present chiefly in the astroglial cells of the CNS (16,17). S100 ␣␣ is present in many organs outside the CNS and will not be discussed in this report, where S100 will be used for the brain-specific S100 with subunits ␣␤ and ␤␤.The astroglial protein S100 is an established biochemical marker for CNS injury in the adult, in whom increased levels of S100 in CSF have been reported after cerebral insults (18,19). S100 in blood has been shown to be a marker of brain damage in adult stroke (20, 21) and a potential marker for c...