F. Macagno - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by F. Macagno
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012
Recent research has shown that specific areas of the human brain are activated by speech from the... more Recent research has shown that specific areas of the human brain are activated by speech from the time of birth. However, it is currently unknown whether newborns' brains also encode and remember the sounds of words when processing speech. The present study investigates the type of information that newborns retain when they hear words and the brain structures that support word-sound recognition. Forty-four healthy newborns were tested with the functional near-infrared spectroscopy method to establish their ability to memorize the sound of a word and distinguish it from a phonetically similar one, 2 min after encoding. Right frontal regions—comparable to those activated in adults during retrieval of verbal material—showed a characteristic neural signature of recognition when newborns listened to a test word that had the same vowel of a previously heard word. In contrast, a characteristic novelty response was found when a test word had different vowels than the familiar word, desp...
The Journal of Pediatrics, 2013
Objective To assess the relationship between antenatal factors and cause-specific risk of death i... more Objective To assess the relationship between antenatal factors and cause-specific risk of death in a large area-based cohort of very preterm infants. Study design The ACTION (Accesso alle Cure e Terapie Intensive Ostetriche e Neonatali) study recruited during an 18-month period all infants 22-31 weeks' gestational age admitted to neonatal care in 6 Italian regions (n = 3040). We analyzed the data of 2974 babies without lethal or acutely life-threatening malformations. Cause-specific risks of death adjusted for competing causes were calculated, and region-stratified multiple Cox regression analyses were used to study the association between cause-specific mortality and infants' characteristics, pregnancy complications, antenatal steroids, and place of birth. Results Deaths attributable to respiratory problems and intraventricular hemorrhage prevailed in the first 2 weeks of life, and those attributable to infections and gastrointestinal diseases afterwards. Antepartum hemorrhage was associated with respiratory deaths (hazard ratio [HR] 1.6, 95% CI 1.1-2.4), and maternal infection with deaths attributable to asphyxia (HR 32.5, 95% CI 4.1-259.4) and to respiratory problems (HR 2.8, 95% CI 1.6-5.2). Preterm premature rupture of membranes increased the likelihood of deaths due to neonatal infection (HR 1.8, 95% CI 1.0-3.1), and preterm labor/contractions of those due to respiratory (HR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1-2.0) and gastrointestinal diseases (HR 5.8, 95% CI 2.1-16.3). In addition, a birth weight z-score <À1 was associated with increasing hazards of death resulting from asphyxia, late infections, respiratory, and gastrointestinal diseases. Conclusions Different complications of pregnancy lead to different cause-specific mortality patterns in very preterm infants.
Annali di ostetricia, ginecologia, medicina perinatale
Journal of pediatric psychology, Jan 5, 2015
Parental perception of a child vulnerability (PPCV) to illness, not justified by medically notic... more Parental perception of a child vulnerability (PPCV) to illness, not justified by medically noticeable symptoms, is a situation well known to medical and paramedical staff. It is still disputed whether PPCV is triggered by the child's health problems or by parental emotional status. This review is aimed to clarify the etiology of PPCV in instances of preterm birth. METHOD: PRISMA guidelines were followed. MEDLINE and Scopus indexes were searched. Of the 70 articles yielded by the search, 14 met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review, of which 10 could be included in the meta-analysis. RESULTS: Children's physiological factors and parents' psychological factors were both found to significantly influence PPCV, in different ways, at different ages of the child. CONCLUSION: PPCV etiology appears to mostly depend on parents' psychological factors. A better understanding of PPCV etiology could help protect children from distorted parental interaction and re...
Early human development, 2015
Size at birth is an important predictor of neonatal outcomes, but there are inconsistencies on th... more Size at birth is an important predictor of neonatal outcomes, but there are inconsistencies on the definitions and optimal cut-offs. The aim of this study is to compute birth size percentiles for Italian very preterm singleton infants and assess relationship with hospital mortality. Prospective area-based cohort study. All singleton Italian infants with gestational age 22-31 weeks admitted to neonatal care in 6 Italian regions (Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Lombardia, Marche, Tuscany, Lazio and Calabria) (n. 1605). Hospital mortality. Anthropometric reference charts were derived, separately for males and females, using the lambda (λ) mu (μ) and sigma (σ) method (LMS). Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate mortality rates by gestational age and birth weight centile class, adjusting for sex, congenital anomalies and region. At any gestational age, mortality decreased as birth weight centile increased, with lowest values observed between the 50th and the 89th centiles interval. Us...
La Pediatria medica e chirurgica : Medical and surgical pediatrics
Minerva ginecologica, 2003
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of antenatal maternal corticosteroid treatment o... more The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of antenatal maternal corticosteroid treatment on the frequency of neonatal outcomes and perinatal infectious morbidity among singleton pregnancies complicated by preterm delivery. A nonrandomized analysis was performed on 189 neonates of 24-34 weeks' gestation who were born at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Udine, between January 2000 to December 2001. The neonates were subdivided into 3 groups: 1) 143 neonates received 2 doses of corticosteroids in a 24-hour interval and repeated after 10 days; 2) 26 neonates received 2 doses; 3) 20 neonates did not receive any treatment. Data were analysed with the Fisher exact test. p<0.05 was considered significant. The incidence of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), neonatal mortality and intraventricular hemorrhage was respectively 43.4%, 3.2 % and 6.3 %. The rate of early-onset neonatal sepsis was 4.9% in the 1st group, 3.9% in the 2nd group and 5% in the 3...
Journal of clinical computing, 1987
La Pediatria medica e chirurgica : Medical and surgical pediatrics
Nine infants with haematoma of the SCM muscle were evaluated. A review of previous reports and a ... more Nine infants with haematoma of the SCM muscle were evaluated. A review of previous reports and a comparison of the clinical features of this group of patients to ones considered in other reports is reported and a simple therapeutic program is outlined: during the first year of life, postures and simple exercises performed by the mother under the pediatrician's supervision are suggested. In the eight cases in which the therapeutic program was followed, the long-term outcome was satisfactory from both cosmetic and functional point of view. Therefore this method should be preferred during the first year of life, also taking into account the lack of negative influence on the mother-infant relationship and on the infant's neurological development.
Helvetica paediatrica acta, 1970
Annali di ostetricia, ginecologia, medicina perinatale
Contributions to gynecology and obstetrics, 1977
In a recent paper (ISSA 2010), Groarke proposes a view of emotional arguments that seems too narr... more In a recent paper (ISSA 2010), Groarke proposes a view of emotional arguments that seems too narrow. While his notion of pathos and emotional arguments may aid in the development of normative analysis, it is not sufficient in addressing all emotional arguments and is guilty of strictly adhering to the tradition's conception of emotion's place in argumentation. I suggest an alternative evaluation of emotional arguments-relying on Walton's dialogue types and goals as its foundation.
Pediatric Research, 2011
Human milk has several advantages for very preterm infants, including reduced risk of sepsis and ... more Human milk has several advantages for very preterm infants, including reduced risk of sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis. This study aims at describing breastfeeding rates in very preterm infants at discharge from Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and exploring predictive factors. Methods: The area-based ACTION study prospectively enrolled all infants admitted for neonatal care at 22-31 weeks gestation in six Italian regions. Obstetrical and neonatological variables were recorded, including type of feeding at discharge. Parental informed consent and Ethics Committee approval were obtained. The study was supported by a grant of the Italian Health Ministry. Multivariable logistic analysis accounting for NICU clustering was adopted to study the relation between maternal and neonatal variables and feeding at discharge (exclusive and partial breastfeeding). Results: Among 3040 neonates admitted to NICU in 2003-2005, 2515 were discharged alive. At discharge, 621 (25%) were fed breast milk exclusively; 875 (36%) breast and artificial milk; and 951 (39%) artificial milk only. Factors significantly associated with increased likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding in multivariable analysis were female sex, singleton birth, Italian mother, absence of chronic lung disease, and birth in northern regions, while gestational age was not. When any breast milk was considered, infant's sex, singleton birth and region were no longer significant, while gestational showed a stronger effect. Conclusions: Exclusive breastfeeding of very preterm infants during hospital stay is challenging, but differences between regions emphasize the role of Unit policies. The differential effect of predictors between exclusive and partial breastfeeding provides indications to tailoring interventions.
Pediatric Research, 2013
Population Study nature publishing group Background: We examined the relationships between pregna... more Population Study nature publishing group Background: We examined the relationships between pregnancy disorders leading to very preterm birth (spontaneous preterm labor, prelabor premature rupture of membranes (PPROM), hypertension/preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), antenatal hemorrhage, and maternal infection), both in isolation and grouped together as "disorders of placentation" (hypertensive disorders and IUGR) vs. "presumed infection/inflammation" (all the others), and several unfavorable neonatal outcomes. Methods: We examined a population-based prospective cohort of 2,085 singleton infants of 23-31 wk gestational age (GA) born in six Italian regions (the Accesso alle Cure e Terapie Intensive Ostetriche e Neonatali (ACTION) study). results: Neonates born following disorders of placentation had a higher GA and better overall outcomes than those born following infection/inflammation. After adjustment for GA, however, they showed higher risk of mortality (odds ratio, OR: 1.4; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.0-2.0), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) (OR: 2.5; CI: 1.8-3.6), and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) (OR: 2.0; CI: 1.1-3.5), especially in growth-restricted infants, and a lower risk of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) (OR: 0.5; CI: 0.3-0.8) and periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) (OR: 0.6; CI: 0.4-1.1) as compared with infants born following infection/inflammation disorders. conclusion: Our data confirm the hypothesis that, in very preterm infants, adverse outcomes are both a function of immaturity (low GA) and of complications leading to preterm birth. The profile of risk is different in different pregnancy disorders.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012
Recent research has shown that specific areas of the human brain are activated by speech from the... more Recent research has shown that specific areas of the human brain are activated by speech from the time of birth. However, it is currently unknown whether newborns' brains also encode and remember the sounds of words when processing speech. The present study investigates the type of information that newborns retain when they hear words and the brain structures that support word-sound recognition. Forty-four healthy newborns were tested with the functional near-infrared spectroscopy method to establish their ability to memorize the sound of a word and distinguish it from a phonetically similar one, 2 min after encoding. Right frontal regions—comparable to those activated in adults during retrieval of verbal material—showed a characteristic neural signature of recognition when newborns listened to a test word that had the same vowel of a previously heard word. In contrast, a characteristic novelty response was found when a test word had different vowels than the familiar word, desp...
The Journal of Pediatrics, 2013
Objective To assess the relationship between antenatal factors and cause-specific risk of death i... more Objective To assess the relationship between antenatal factors and cause-specific risk of death in a large area-based cohort of very preterm infants. Study design The ACTION (Accesso alle Cure e Terapie Intensive Ostetriche e Neonatali) study recruited during an 18-month period all infants 22-31 weeks' gestational age admitted to neonatal care in 6 Italian regions (n = 3040). We analyzed the data of 2974 babies without lethal or acutely life-threatening malformations. Cause-specific risks of death adjusted for competing causes were calculated, and region-stratified multiple Cox regression analyses were used to study the association between cause-specific mortality and infants' characteristics, pregnancy complications, antenatal steroids, and place of birth. Results Deaths attributable to respiratory problems and intraventricular hemorrhage prevailed in the first 2 weeks of life, and those attributable to infections and gastrointestinal diseases afterwards. Antepartum hemorrhage was associated with respiratory deaths (hazard ratio [HR] 1.6, 95% CI 1.1-2.4), and maternal infection with deaths attributable to asphyxia (HR 32.5, 95% CI 4.1-259.4) and to respiratory problems (HR 2.8, 95% CI 1.6-5.2). Preterm premature rupture of membranes increased the likelihood of deaths due to neonatal infection (HR 1.8, 95% CI 1.0-3.1), and preterm labor/contractions of those due to respiratory (HR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1-2.0) and gastrointestinal diseases (HR 5.8, 95% CI 2.1-16.3). In addition, a birth weight z-score <À1 was associated with increasing hazards of death resulting from asphyxia, late infections, respiratory, and gastrointestinal diseases. Conclusions Different complications of pregnancy lead to different cause-specific mortality patterns in very preterm infants.
Annali di ostetricia, ginecologia, medicina perinatale
Journal of pediatric psychology, Jan 5, 2015
Parental perception of a child vulnerability (PPCV) to illness, not justified by medically notic... more Parental perception of a child vulnerability (PPCV) to illness, not justified by medically noticeable symptoms, is a situation well known to medical and paramedical staff. It is still disputed whether PPCV is triggered by the child's health problems or by parental emotional status. This review is aimed to clarify the etiology of PPCV in instances of preterm birth. METHOD: PRISMA guidelines were followed. MEDLINE and Scopus indexes were searched. Of the 70 articles yielded by the search, 14 met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review, of which 10 could be included in the meta-analysis. RESULTS: Children's physiological factors and parents' psychological factors were both found to significantly influence PPCV, in different ways, at different ages of the child. CONCLUSION: PPCV etiology appears to mostly depend on parents' psychological factors. A better understanding of PPCV etiology could help protect children from distorted parental interaction and re...
Early human development, 2015
Size at birth is an important predictor of neonatal outcomes, but there are inconsistencies on th... more Size at birth is an important predictor of neonatal outcomes, but there are inconsistencies on the definitions and optimal cut-offs. The aim of this study is to compute birth size percentiles for Italian very preterm singleton infants and assess relationship with hospital mortality. Prospective area-based cohort study. All singleton Italian infants with gestational age 22-31 weeks admitted to neonatal care in 6 Italian regions (Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Lombardia, Marche, Tuscany, Lazio and Calabria) (n. 1605). Hospital mortality. Anthropometric reference charts were derived, separately for males and females, using the lambda (λ) mu (μ) and sigma (σ) method (LMS). Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate mortality rates by gestational age and birth weight centile class, adjusting for sex, congenital anomalies and region. At any gestational age, mortality decreased as birth weight centile increased, with lowest values observed between the 50th and the 89th centiles interval. Us...
La Pediatria medica e chirurgica : Medical and surgical pediatrics
Minerva ginecologica, 2003
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of antenatal maternal corticosteroid treatment o... more The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of antenatal maternal corticosteroid treatment on the frequency of neonatal outcomes and perinatal infectious morbidity among singleton pregnancies complicated by preterm delivery. A nonrandomized analysis was performed on 189 neonates of 24-34 weeks' gestation who were born at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Udine, between January 2000 to December 2001. The neonates were subdivided into 3 groups: 1) 143 neonates received 2 doses of corticosteroids in a 24-hour interval and repeated after 10 days; 2) 26 neonates received 2 doses; 3) 20 neonates did not receive any treatment. Data were analysed with the Fisher exact test. p<0.05 was considered significant. The incidence of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), neonatal mortality and intraventricular hemorrhage was respectively 43.4%, 3.2 % and 6.3 %. The rate of early-onset neonatal sepsis was 4.9% in the 1st group, 3.9% in the 2nd group and 5% in the 3...
Journal of clinical computing, 1987
La Pediatria medica e chirurgica : Medical and surgical pediatrics
Nine infants with haematoma of the SCM muscle were evaluated. A review of previous reports and a ... more Nine infants with haematoma of the SCM muscle were evaluated. A review of previous reports and a comparison of the clinical features of this group of patients to ones considered in other reports is reported and a simple therapeutic program is outlined: during the first year of life, postures and simple exercises performed by the mother under the pediatrician's supervision are suggested. In the eight cases in which the therapeutic program was followed, the long-term outcome was satisfactory from both cosmetic and functional point of view. Therefore this method should be preferred during the first year of life, also taking into account the lack of negative influence on the mother-infant relationship and on the infant's neurological development.
Helvetica paediatrica acta, 1970
Annali di ostetricia, ginecologia, medicina perinatale
Contributions to gynecology and obstetrics, 1977
In a recent paper (ISSA 2010), Groarke proposes a view of emotional arguments that seems too narr... more In a recent paper (ISSA 2010), Groarke proposes a view of emotional arguments that seems too narrow. While his notion of pathos and emotional arguments may aid in the development of normative analysis, it is not sufficient in addressing all emotional arguments and is guilty of strictly adhering to the tradition's conception of emotion's place in argumentation. I suggest an alternative evaluation of emotional arguments-relying on Walton's dialogue types and goals as its foundation.
Pediatric Research, 2011
Human milk has several advantages for very preterm infants, including reduced risk of sepsis and ... more Human milk has several advantages for very preterm infants, including reduced risk of sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis. This study aims at describing breastfeeding rates in very preterm infants at discharge from Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and exploring predictive factors. Methods: The area-based ACTION study prospectively enrolled all infants admitted for neonatal care at 22-31 weeks gestation in six Italian regions. Obstetrical and neonatological variables were recorded, including type of feeding at discharge. Parental informed consent and Ethics Committee approval were obtained. The study was supported by a grant of the Italian Health Ministry. Multivariable logistic analysis accounting for NICU clustering was adopted to study the relation between maternal and neonatal variables and feeding at discharge (exclusive and partial breastfeeding). Results: Among 3040 neonates admitted to NICU in 2003-2005, 2515 were discharged alive. At discharge, 621 (25%) were fed breast milk exclusively; 875 (36%) breast and artificial milk; and 951 (39%) artificial milk only. Factors significantly associated with increased likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding in multivariable analysis were female sex, singleton birth, Italian mother, absence of chronic lung disease, and birth in northern regions, while gestational age was not. When any breast milk was considered, infant's sex, singleton birth and region were no longer significant, while gestational showed a stronger effect. Conclusions: Exclusive breastfeeding of very preterm infants during hospital stay is challenging, but differences between regions emphasize the role of Unit policies. The differential effect of predictors between exclusive and partial breastfeeding provides indications to tailoring interventions.
Pediatric Research, 2013
Population Study nature publishing group Background: We examined the relationships between pregna... more Population Study nature publishing group Background: We examined the relationships between pregnancy disorders leading to very preterm birth (spontaneous preterm labor, prelabor premature rupture of membranes (PPROM), hypertension/preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), antenatal hemorrhage, and maternal infection), both in isolation and grouped together as "disorders of placentation" (hypertensive disorders and IUGR) vs. "presumed infection/inflammation" (all the others), and several unfavorable neonatal outcomes. Methods: We examined a population-based prospective cohort of 2,085 singleton infants of 23-31 wk gestational age (GA) born in six Italian regions (the Accesso alle Cure e Terapie Intensive Ostetriche e Neonatali (ACTION) study). results: Neonates born following disorders of placentation had a higher GA and better overall outcomes than those born following infection/inflammation. After adjustment for GA, however, they showed higher risk of mortality (odds ratio, OR: 1.4; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.0-2.0), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) (OR: 2.5; CI: 1.8-3.6), and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) (OR: 2.0; CI: 1.1-3.5), especially in growth-restricted infants, and a lower risk of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) (OR: 0.5; CI: 0.3-0.8) and periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) (OR: 0.6; CI: 0.4-1.1) as compared with infants born following infection/inflammation disorders. conclusion: Our data confirm the hypothesis that, in very preterm infants, adverse outcomes are both a function of immaturity (low GA) and of complications leading to preterm birth. The profile of risk is different in different pregnancy disorders.