Hypotension within 1 week of life associated with poor short- and long-term outcomes in very low birth weight infants.

We examined whether hypotension in very low birth weight infants aged⩽1 week was associated with hospital morbidities and overall mortality. Further, we studied whether hypotension was associated with poor neurodevelopmental outcomes in these patients at the corrected age of 18 months. A total of 166 very low birth weight infants were studied during this period. Hospital outcomes and neurodevelopmental outcomes at the corrected age of 18 months were evaluated. Among the 166 very low birth weight infants, 95 patients (57.2%) experienced hypotension at⩽1 week and were associated with an increased incidence of morbidities and mortality. At the corrected age of 18 months, hypotension of the⩽1 week group had significantly lower scores in all three - cognitive, language, and motor - composites of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III) screening tests. In addition, a multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that longer mechanical ventilation and periventricular leukomalacia were additionally associated with worse cognitive and language neurodevelopmental outcomes. Hypotension in very low birth weight infants within 1 week of life was associated with increased morbidities and overall mortality. It was also associated with an increased risk of cognitive and language outcomes.

Discrimination between genetically identical peony roots from different regions of origin based on 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy-based metabolomics: determination of the geographical origins and estimation of the mixing proportions of blended samples.

Sixty peony root training samples of the same age were collected from various regions in Korea and China, and their genetic diversity was investigated for 23 chloroplast intergenic space regions. All samples were genetically indistinguishable, indicating that the DNA-based techniques employed were not appropriate for determining the samples' regions of origin. In contrast, (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H-NMR) spectroscopy-based metabolomics coupled with multivariate statistical analysis revealed a clear difference between the metabolic profiles of the Korean and Chinese samples. Orthogonal projections on the latent structure-discrimination analysis allowed the identification of potential metabolite markers, including γ-aminobutyric acid, arginine, alanine, paeoniflorin, and albiflorin, that could be useful for classifying the samples' regions of origin. The validity of the discrimination model was tested using the response permutation test and blind prediction test for internal and external validations, respectively. Metabolomic data of 21 blended samples consisting of Korean and Chinese samples mixed at various proportions were also acquired by (1)H-NMR analysis. After data preprocessing which was designed to eliminate uncontrolled deviations in the spectral data between the testing and training sets, a new statistical procedure for estimating the mixing proportions of blended samples was established using the constrained least squares method for the first time. The predictive procedure exhibited relatively good predictability (adjusted R (2) = 0.7669), and thus has the potential to be used in the quality control of peony root by providing correct indications for a sample's geographical origins.