Primary immune thrombocytopenia: Experience of a specialised clinic

Introduction: Although primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is rare in childhood, it is the most frequent cause of thrombocytopenia. There have been attempts to establish risk factors to predict the progression of the disease in order to optimise its management, which has changed in recent years due to, among other reasons, specialised care. Material and methods: A retrospective, observational and analytical study was conducted on patients diagnosed with ITP over a 3-year period in a Paediatric Haematology specialist clinic. Results: From the epidemiological, clinical and analytical point of view, the characteristics of this group are similar to others. Most of the patients (23/31, 74.2%) had ITP for less than 12 months, with there being no serious complications related to the disease or the treatment received. It was established that risk factors were related to being slowly evolving (lower event free survival (EFS)) with no statistical significance, female gender, age over 10 years, leukopenia absence of initial severe thrombocytopenia, and non-specialised care. The absence of a history of infection was significantly related to a lower EFS. Conclusions: The epidemiological and analytical risk factors for a slowly evolving ITP are the same that described in the literature. Patients treated before the beginning of specialised care also had a lower EFS. These data seem to support the current recommendation that rare diseases should be managed in specialised units. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. on behalf of Asociaci6n Espanola de Pediatria. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

The International Network for Evaluating Outcomes (iNeo) of neonates: evolution, progress and opportunities

Neonates born very preterm (before 32 weeks’ gestational age), are a significant public health concern because of their high-risk of mortality and life-long disability. In addition, caring for very preterm neonates can be expensive, both during their initial hospitalization and their long-term cost of permanent impairments. To address these issues, national and regional neonatal networks around the world collect and analyse data from their constituents to identify trends in outcomes, and conduct benchmarking, audit and research. Improving neonatal outcomes and reducing health care costs is a global problem that can be addressed using collaborative approaches to assess practice variation between countries, conduct research and implement evidence-based practices. The International Network for Evaluating Outcomes (iNeo) of neonates was established in 2013 with the goal of improving outcomes for very preterm neonates through international collaboration and comparisons. To date, 10 national or regional population-based neonatal networks/datasets participate in iNeo collaboration. The initiative now includes data on >200,000 very preterm neonates and has conducted important epidemiological studies evaluating outcomes, variations and trends. The collaboration has also surveyed >320 neonatal units worldwide to learn about variations in practices, healthcare service delivery, and physical, environmental and manpower related factors and support services for parents. The iNeo collaboration serves as a strong international platform for Neonatal-Perinatal health services research that facilitates international data sharing, capacity building, and global efforts to improve very preterm neonate care