Ida Sirgiovanni

• University of Milan

Background. Very preterm (VPT) preschool-children display higher negative emotionality (NE) compared to full-term (FT) counterparts. NE is an indicator of stress response and it is associated to adequate strategies to react to stressors (reactivity) and to the return to baseline behavioral states when the stress is over (recovery). NE could be expl...

Aim: The main goal of this study was to assess the association between pain-related increase in serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) methylation and emotional dysregulation in 4.5-year-old preterm children compared to full-term matched counterparts. Methods: Preterm (n=29) and full-term (n=26) children recruited from two Italian hospitals were fo...

Background: The effects and potential hazards of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 3 T in newborns are debated. Objective: Assess the impact of 3-T MRI in newborns on body temperature and physiological parameters. Material and methods: Forty-nine newborns, born preterm and at term, underwent 3-T brain MRI at term-corrected age. Rectal...

Very preterm (VPT) infants admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are at risk for altered brain growth and less-than-optimal socio-emotional development. Recent research suggests that early NICU-related stress contributes to socio-emotional impairments in VPT infants at 3 months through epigenetic regulation (i.e., DNA methylation) of the...

CpG sites position on the chromosome 17 and distance from the transcription start site of the SLC6A4 gene. Note. Chr17 = Chromosome 17; TSS = Transcriptional Start Site. (DOCX)

Exploratory path analysis for the mediation effect of ATL-MPL (A), ATL-LPR (B), and ATL-LPL (C) on the relationship between birth-to-discharge SLC6A4 methylation increase and GMDS Personal-Social score at 12 months CA. Note. NICU, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; Δmet, mean change in SLC6A4 methylation from birth to NICU discharge at CpG chr17: 285627...

This data set reports all relevant data for the present paper. (XLSX)

Background Very preterm (VPT) infants are hospitalized in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) and are exposed to life-saving procedures eliciting pain-related stress. Recent research documented that pain-related stress might result in birth-to-discharge increased methylation of serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) in VPT infants, leading to poorer...

Very preterm (VPT) infants are at risk for altered socio-emotional stress regulation, even in the absence of perinatal complications. Moreover, becoming a mother of a VPT infant is a traumatic event, which might affect the establishment of a bonding relationship toward the infant during the postnatal period. The main aim of the present study was to...

Commissural embryology mechanisms are not yet completely understood. The study and comprehension of callosal dysgenesis can provide remarkable insights into embryonic or fetal commissural development. The diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) technique allows the in vivo analyses of the white-matter microstructure and is a valid tool to clarify the distur...

Aim: The present study is part of a prospective micro-longitudinal research project and reports on the association between SLC6A4 methylation and socio-emotional stress response in very preterm (VPT) and full-term (FT) infants. Materials & methods: SLC6A4 methylation was assessed at birth and discharge in 32 VPT infants, and at birth in 27 FT in...

Objective: To compare maternal and paternal experiences of very preterm (VPT) birth (gestational age < 32 weeks) and the NICU stay. Design: Qualitative study. Setting: Data collection took place at parents' homes 3 to 6 months after NICU discharge. Participants: Ten parental couples participated in the study (20 parents). All VPT infants wer...

Background. Recent research has highlighted that procedural pain during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) might associate with altered DNA methylation of the gene encoding for serotonin transporter (SLC6A4) in very preterm (VPT) infants (Provenzi et al., 2015). These alterations have been shown to differ from full-term (FT) infants at birth a...

Background. Very preterm (VPT) infants present an immature neuro-behavioral profile at birth, thus requiring long-lasting hospitalization in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU; Lester et al., 2011). VPT infants are especially at developmental risk during infancy and later childhood, despite altered capacity to cope with socio-emotional stress h...

Preterm birth and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay are early adverse stressful experiences, which may result in an altered temperamental profile. The serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4), which has been linked to infant temperament, is susceptible to epigenetic regulation associated with early stressful experience. This study examined a mode...

Extremely preterm babies are at major risk for adverse neurodevelopmental outcome, being the gestational age (GA) the main determinant for a good-quality survival. Aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the neurodevelopmental outcome in a population of extremely preterm babies admitted to a single neonatal tertiary care unit over an 8-y...

Background: Late preterm infants are the most represented premature babies. They are exposed to a wide spectrum of brain lesions which are often clinically silent, supporting a possible role of cerebral ultrasound screening. Aim of the study is to describe the pattern of cranial ultrasound abnormalities in late preterm infants and to define the ne...

Objective This study aims to describe the impact of twin birth, chorionicity, intertwin birth weight (BW) discordance and birth order on neonatal outcomes. Study Design We performed a hospital-based retrospective study on 2,170 twins (6.4% of all live births) and 2,217 singletons inborn 2007 to 2011. Data on neonatal characteristics, morbidities, a...

Very preterm (VPT) infants need long-lasting hospitalization in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) during which they are daily exposed to pain-related stress. Alterations of DNA methylation at the promoter region of the SLC6A4 have been associated with early adverse experiences in infants. The main aim of the present work was to investigate th...

Intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) in term newborns has been increasingly recognised but the occurrence in late preterm infants and the clinical presentation are still unclear. To investigate the appearance of intracranial haemorrhage at MRI in a cohort of infants born at 34 weeks' gestation or more and to correlate MRI findings with neonatal symptoms....

Research plays an important role in influencing clinical decisions and building up a safe clinical practice although it must be taken into consideration that the practice of the evidence based medicine derives from the integration of the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research with own individual clinical expertise. The p...

Abstract For many years cerebellar development after preterm birth has been poorly investigated and has been studied without taking germinal matrix-intraventricular haemorrhage into account. Advanced neuroimaging techniques like magnetic resonance imaging, as well as the use of various acoustic windows (mastoid fontanelle, occipital foramen) have a...

Introduction CH is an increasingly diagnosticated problem in VLBW, reaching up till 19% among the ELBW due to improved neuroimaging techniques and increased VLBW survivors. The impact of CH on long-term neurodevolopmental outcome is still not well known. Aim To evaluate the consequences of CH on neurocognitive outcome in VLBW. Methods CH and other...

Introduction Cancer treatment in pregnant women is still a matter of debate as life-saving therapies for the mother and adverse effects for the fetus. Recent data support that chemotherapy from 14 wks GA onwards as safe in terms of early neonatal and long-term outcomes in children, while impaired neurodevelopmental outcome appear to be related to p...

Background Cerebellar malformations are one of the main referral reasons for fetal magnetic resonance imaging, with recent studies suggesting associated impairments in higher cognitive functions. The lack of biometric data, motion artifact and inconsistent classification schemes all hinder the detailed characterisation of cerebellar anomalies, whil...

The recent progresses made in perinatal medicine have determined an increase in the survival of newborns with lower and lower weight and earlier and earlier gestational age. Although neonatal mortality has decreased in the last few years, the incidence of long-term neurological outcomes, especially in newborns with birth weight less than 750 grams,...

Background Fetal MRI is increasingly used in clinical settings. Ongoing vigilance regarding safety is essential. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) 2007 limits whole body specific absorption rate (SAR) to 2W/Kg (normal mode) during MRI. Estimated fetal temperature must not exceed 38°C, assuming fetal-maternal temperature gra...

La sindrome da banda amniotica è una condizione relativamente rara in cui i tessuti fetali vengono incarcerati in membrane amniotiche, determinando deformazioni, malformazioni ed amputazioni. L’esame ecografico consen-te di individuare in epoca prenatale la sindrome da costrizione amniotica mediante la visualizzazione delle bande amniotiche adese a...

Le cisti ovariche sono un reperto occasionale nei feti e nei neonati. Noi riportiamo il caso di una neonata di peso molto basso alla nascita con comparsa di cisti ovariche estradiolo secernenti in associazione ad edema dei geni-tali, imbibizione delle piccole e grandi labbra e presenza di bottone mammario bilaterale. La concentrazione dell’estradio...

Noi abbiamo descritto un grave caso di idrocefalo da infezione da Toxoplasma Gondii diagnosticato nell’ultimo trimestre di gravidanza per mancata sorveglianza sierologica della madre. L’ecografia fetale effettuata nel terzo trimestre ha mostrato una grave ventricolomegalia bilaterale e l’indagine sierologica materna è ri-sultata positiva per infezi...

Lo stridore laringeo è il rumore causato dall’alterato passaggio dell’aria attraverso le basse vie aeree. Si tratta di un segno clinico e non una diagnosi. Lo studio endoscopico delle alte e basse vie aeree in anestesia generale rap-presenta il gold standard nella diagnosi di stridore, sebbene rivesta un ruolo altrettanto importante la valuta-zione...

La sindrome di Bartter ad esordio prenatale è una rara tubulopatia a trasmissione autosomica recessiva caratte-rizzata da polidramnios idiopatico, poliuria fetale ed elevati livelli di cloruro di sodio nel liquido amniotico. Essa si associa ad alcalosi metabolica ipocaliemica con elevati livelli plasmatici di renina ed aldosterone e bassi valori di...

I quadri clinici dell’allergia tendono a presentarsi con una progressione cronologica che prevede, di regola, la comparsa di manifestazioni precoci; tra queste prevale la dermatite atopica (DA) anche se sono possibili altri quadri clinici legati spesso ad allergia alimentare: sintomi gastroenterici (diarrea, vomito, dolori addominali), cutanei (ort...