The web survey network of sudden infant death syndrome and apparent life-threatening events in the Emilia-Romagna region.

To survey epidemiology and to study the etiology of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and apparent life threatening events (ALTE) in Emilia-Romagna, a web network was constituted. A regional supervisor and a steering committee plan the action of district and local co-ordinators. They keep contact with the Regional Office of Health Services. District and local co-ordinators collect clinical and laboratory and, in case of SIDS, also autopsy data. Records are communicated to the Regional Supervising Center by on-line software. From these data, future planning of care and of mass information as well as auditing of their efficacy can be carried out. The characteristics of the network that has just started to collect data, as well its future developmental aspects, are discussed.

Neonatal seizures in preterm infants: clinical outcome and relationship with subsequent epilepsy.

OBJECTIVE: Neonatal seizures are considered an acute manifestation of disturbance of the neonatal brain. Some of them can be considered as neonatal epilepsy. Our goal was to evaluate perinatal risk factors, electroencephalogram (EEG) findings and ictal semeiological characteristics of our newborns with neonatal seizures in order to identify which clinical variables were the most early predictive factors of poor neurodevelopmental outcome and of epilepsy. METHODS: Among all preterm infants consecutively admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the University Hospital of Parma in the period between January 1999 and June 2003, 28 preterm infants with gestational age