Neuroplasticity in Young Age: Computer-Based Early Neurodevelopment Classifier

Neurodevelopmental syndromes, a continuously growing issue, are impairments in the growth and development of the brain and CNS which are pronounced in a variety of emotional, cognitive, motor and social skills. Early assessment and detection of typical, clinically correlated early signs of developmental abnormalities is crucial for early and effective intervention, supporting initiation of early treatment and minimizing neurological and functional deficits. Successful early interventions would then direct to early time windows of higher neural plasticity. Various syndromes are reflected in early vocal and motor characteristics, making them suitable indicators of an infant’s neural development. Performance of the computerized classifiers we developed shows approximately 90% accuracy on a database of diagnosed babies. The results demonstrate the potential of vocal and motor analysis for computer-assisted early detection of neurodevelopmental insults

PCR-Based Diagnosis of Neonatal Staphylococcal Bacteremias

We compared PCR with blood cultures in the diagnosis of neonatal staphylococcal sepsis. Significant association was observed between PCR-based and culture-based diagnosis of staphylococcal bacteremia. Positive and negative predictive values for PCR were 100% and 98%, respectively. These data indicate that PCR may serve as a useful adjunct for the rapid diagnosis of staphylococcal sepsis