Highlights in this issue

Abstract

An apparent life-threatening event (ALTE) is when a baby demonstrates one or more of the following for less than a minute: bluish skin, poor breathing, weakness or poor responsiveness. Monti et al 1 used a regional database to study the occurrence of ALTEs in Northern Italy from 2002 to 2006. The incidence was 4.1 cases per 1000 live births, and the presence of gastroesophageal reflux and a family history of sudden death were found to be significant risk factors. If an ALTE is unexplained after a thorough investigation, the recommended term is now a brief resolved unexpected event (BRUE), and if it occurs immediate after birth, the term sudden unexpected postnatal collapse (SUPC) is used. See the accompanying editorial by Herlenius 2. This issue contains two papers on food allergies. Strinnholm et al 3 investigated adolescents’ experiences after a double-blind placebo-controlled food challenge. Reintroduction failure was common and was associated with fear of reactions, not appreciating the taste of the food and living a normal life without the challenged food. In the second study, Kukkonen et al 4 looked at peanut oral immunotherapy in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of children aged 6–18 years. They found that it was effective for severe allergies and did not have any negative effects on airway inflammation. All women with preterm labours between 24 and 34 weeks of gestation should receive antenatal corticosteroid prophylaxis to improve the lung maturation of their offspring. However, Gagliardi et al 5 found that 15% of women delivering very preterm infants in a highly organised network of hospitals in Tuscany, Italy, did not receive antenatal corticosteroids. Late hospital admission and migrant status were the main factors associated with missed prophylaxis. Cuttini 6 comments on the findings. Acute rhinosinusitis is common in young children, and in certain cases, it may lead to serious bacterial infections with orbital and intracranial complications. Schollin Ask et al 7 studied the incidence of acute rhinosinusitis in tertiary care in Stockholm County, Sweden, between 2003 and 2007 and surveyed the clinical outcomes. They found that most children hospitalised for acute rhinosinusitis had an orbital complication and that this was more common in children under the age of two years and in boys. Severe postseptal complications were rare. This Swedish study describes how parents of 86 infants perceived their own sleep while their infant was in a neonatal intensive care unit and after discharge. Mothers were more likely to report severe insomnia than fathers during their infants’ hospitalisation, and the higher insomnia severity scores were associated with more severe infant sleep problems after discharge. Thernström Blomqvist et al 8 concluded that parents need support to optimise their sleep, as parents’ sleeping problems seem to affect their child's sleeping pattern.