[Cannulation for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in infants less than 5 kg].

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the experience of cannulation for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in infants less than 5 kg. METHODS: Eleven infants with ECMO support who weighed less than 5 kg were admitted to critical care medicine of Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center from June 2016 to June 2018 were enrolled. Retrospective analysis of support type, configuration, site of cannula and complication of ECMO was performed. RESULTS: The 11 infants consisted of 9 males and 2 females. The weight on ECMO of 1.96-4.60 kg, with an average of (3.14±0.65) kg; age 0.1-30.0 days, with a median of 5.6 (1.5, 8.3) days. Four cases were given ECMO because of congenital diaphragmatic hernia with severe pulmonary hypertension and other 7 cases were cannulated due to complication of congenital cardiac surgery. All infants were received veno-arterial (V-A) ECMO. In 4 cases, the cannulas were placed in the right internal jugular vein for drainage (8-10 French catheter with 6.0-7.5 cm depth) and the right carotid artery for infusion (6-8 French catheter with 2.5-3.5 cm depth); the average time of cannulation in right carotid and jugular vessels was (73±20) minutes (range 55-100 minutes). In other 7 cases, the cannulas were inserted into the right atrium (12-14 French catheter with 2.8-3.0 cm depth) for draining blood and returning it to the ascending aorta (6-8 French catheter with 1.0-2.0 cm depth); the average time of cannulation in central vessels was (64±31) minutes (range 35-110 minutes) with exclusion of 2 cases intraoperative cannulation. There were three infants with complications. One episode was shown in vascular rupture, one in catheter site hemorrhage and one in cannula malposition with later repositioning. There was no case of insertion site infection, cannula-related bloodstream infection and accident detached cannula. CONCLUSIONS: Cannulation for ECMO can be performed in infants less than 5 kg with a high rate of success and a low rate of complication owing to appropriate catheter and skillful cannulation.

Th17-associated cytokines multiplex testing indicates the potential of macrophage inflammatory protein-3 alpha in the diagnosis of biliary atresia.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Biliary atresia (BA) is a neonatal obliterative cholangiopathy with high prevalence in south China. Accurate identification of BA among infants with obstructive jaundice is still difficult by noninvasive diagnostic tools. Th17 cells have been reported closely related with the development of BA, which suggest that Th17-associated cytokines were potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of BA patients. METHODS: In the training study, 76 infants who were divided into 2 groups, including BA group (n = 31) and non-BA jaundice group (n = 45). Clinical and routine laboratory data were collected from all subjects. Totally 25 Th17-associated cytokines were tested and compared between groups. The diagnostic value of each differential cytokine was evaluated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The best potential diagnostic biomarker was further validated in a cohort including 68 jaundice infants from our partnering institution in a blinded fashion. RESULTS: Data from the training study showed that gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) and clay stool would be helpful in the identification of BA patients in jaundice subjects. Th17-associated cytokines assay indicated that IL-17F, IL-10, macrophage inflammatory protein-3alpha (MIP3a), IL-22, IL-13, IL-33, IL-6, IL-17E, IL-27, IL-31, TNF-a and TNF-b were differentially expressed in BA patients, and the AUC of MIP3a was higher than other markers. MIP3a alone or combined with other laboratory data would significantly increase the diagnostic accuracy of BA. The diagnostic value of MIP3a was further confirmed in our validation study. CONCLUSION: MIP3a alone or combined with other laboratory data would significantly increase the diagnostic accuracy of BA.