Our cohort of neonatal CRAB bacteremia is characterized by a very high mortality. Infection-control interventions inclusive of strict adherence to infection-control process for central vascular line placement and maintenance as well as antimicrobial stewardship program are essential to help reduce CRAB bacteremia.

The prevalence of newborn AKI in our Thai tertiary center over 24 years was 6.3% of admitted newborns. Sepsis was the most common cause of AKI and sepsis-induced AKI is the most common cause of death. Disease etiology was the only risk factor for mortality.

Objective: To determine iodine intake and urinary iodine excretion (UIE) in a group of pregnant Thai women and the concentration of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in their neonates. Design: A prospective cohort study. Setting: Three districts of Songkhla, southern Thailand. Subjects: Two hundred and thirty-six pregnant women. Results: A quarter of the participants lacked knowledge of iodine and the prevention of iodine deficiency, although 70 % used iodized salt. Those who did not use iodized salt stated that they had no knowledge about iodine (57 %) and no iodized salt was sold in their village (36 %). The median iodine intake in the three districts was 205-240 mg/d, with 53-74 % of pregnant women having iodine intake ,250 mg/d. The median UIE in the three districts was 51-106 mg/l, with 24-35 % having UIE , 50 mg/l. The mean neonatal TSH was 2?40 (SD 1?56) mU/l, with 8?9 % of neonates having TSH . 5 mU/l. Conclusions: The studied women and their fetuses were at risk of mild iodine deficiency. About a quarter of the participants lacked knowledge of the importance of iodine. Education regarding the importance of iodine supplements and the promotion of iodized salt should be added to national health-care policies in order to prevent iodine-deficiency disorders, diseases that are subclinical but have long-term sequelae. Keywords Iodine deficiency Neonatal thyroid-stimulating hormoneNeonatal TSH screening Urinary iodine excretionIodine-deficiency disorders (IDD) are a global public health problem (1)(2)(3) . Data from the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO) in 2004 showed that 600 million people worldwide were at risk of IDD and 172 million people were affected with goitre (4) . Nearly 20 million children born each year in this region are at some risk of mental impairment due to hypothyroidism in the mother and/or the fetus (4,5) . The three main indicators currently used for IDD monitoring to indicate iodine sufficiency are: (i) median urinary iodine excretion (UIE) .100 mg/l, with ,20 % of the population having UIE , 50 mg/l; (ii) enlarged thyroid gland by palpation or ultrasonography (goitre) present in ,5 % of the population; and (iii) thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) .5 mU/l in ,3 % of neonates (1)(2)(3) . Thailand is one of the countries in South-East Asia where IDD is endemic (4,6) . In 1989, the 'National IDD Control Project' on household and industrial salt iodization was established as a strategy for IDD elimination. However, a survey in 1997 in the north and north-east, the major endemic areas of IDD in Thailand, found that the prevalence of goitre in schoolchildren was still as high as 20-30 % and the prevalence of neonatal TSH concentration .5 mU/l was 30-50 % (7,8) . In southern Thailand, a coastal region, IDD was less prevalent as indicated by the 3-5 % goitre prevalence in schoolchildren and the higher levels of UIE (9) . However, a recent 2004 study indicated the prevalence of neonatal TSH . 5 mU/l in the fourteen provinces of southern Thailand to be 10-30 % (10) , indicatin...

Triglyceride and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol are better than low-density lipoprotein cholesterol as predictors of cardiovascular disease risk factors in Chinese Han children and adolescents.

Background: Neonatal sepsis is a cause of mortality and long-term morbidity worldwide. Objectives: To describe longitudinal trends in the cumulative incidence of early-and late-onset sepsis (EOS and LOS), mortality, and causative organisms in a Thai Hospital before and after construction of a new neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods: Review of NICU admissions with blood cultures positive for bacteria or fungi for the periods 1995 to 2002 (preconstruction) and 2004 to 2010 (postconstruction). Sepsis was categorized into EOS (within first 3 days of life) and LOS (after first 3 days of life). Results: Of 5,570 admissions, 241 (4.3%) neonates with 276 episodes of sepsis were identified. There was no difference in the rate of sepsis overall (P = 0.90), LOS (P = 0.30), or sepsis-related mortality (P = 0.61) over the two periods, but the rate of EOS increased significantly from 0.34% to 0.81% (P = 0.04). Rates of Klebsiella species and Escherichia coli sepsis increased from 13.6% to 25.6% (P = 0.01) and from 5.3% to 12.2% (P = 0.04), respectively, while rates of Staphylococcus aureus sepsis decreased from 12.9% to 4.3% (P < 0.007). Sepsisrelated mortality was 1.8%. Conclusions: Although direct causality cannot be proven, the rate of EOS and the pattern of causative organisms changed following construction of the new NICU. Building a new unit does not necessarily result in a reduction in the rate of sepsis. This data may provide a baseline for implementing evidence-based infection control strategies to prevent/reduce sepsis and improve neonatal care.