Compared with recorded music or no music therapy, live music therapy is associated with a reduced heart rate and a deeper sleep at 30 minutes after therapy in stable preterm infants. Both recorded and no music therapies had no significant effect on the tested physiological and behavioral parameters.

Maternal singing during KC reduces maternal anxiety and leads to autonomic stability in stable preterm infants. This effect is not detected in behavioural state or physiological parameters commonly used to monitor preterm infants.

Background: Few studies demonstrated that serum amyloid A (SAA), a non-specific acute-phase reactant, could be used as a reliable early marker for the diagnosis of late-onset sepsis (LOS). Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic value and the dynamics of SAA levels during the course of LOS and to compare it to those of other inflammatory markers. Methods: Levels of SAA, C-reactive protein (CRP) and IL-6 together with clinical variables, biochemical parameters and cultures retrieved from all preterm infants suspected of LOS were checked at the first suspicion of sepsis and after 8, 24, 48 and 72 h. Results were compared to healthy, matched infants. Results: One hundred and sixteen infants were included in the study, 38 in the sepsis and 78 in the non-sepsis group. High levels of SAA were observed at sepsis onset, with a gradual decline thereafter, while CRP levels increased only at 24 h after sepsis onset. In the sepsis group, levels of SAA returned faster to baseline than CRP levels. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis values revealed that SAA at 10 µg/ml had the highest sensitivity at 0, 8 and 24 h after sepsis onset (95, 100 and 97%, respectively) and a negative predictive value (97, 100 and 98%, respectively). Conclusions: SAA is an accurate acute-phase protein during LOS in preterm infants. Quick and reliable SAA kits can make this marker a useful tool in LOS in preterm infants.

We found that the rate of VUR was lower in very low birth weight premature newborns than that reported in the medical literature among term newborns who developed UTI. VUR was less frequent in extremely low birth weight infants who developed UTI than in infants weighing 1001 to 1500 g.