ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The reduction of pain due to routine invasive procedures (capillary heel stick blood sampling for neonatal metabolic screening) in the newborn is an important objective for the so-called "Hospital with no pain". Practices such as skin to skin contact, or breastfeeding, in healthy newborn, may represent an alternative to the use of analgesic drugs. The aim of our work is to evaluate the analgesic effect of breastfeeding during heel puncture in full term healthy newborn. METHODS: We studied 200 healthy full term newborns (100 cases and 100 controls), proposing the puncture to mothers during breastfeeding, and explaining to them all the advantages of this practice. Pain assessment was evaluated by DAN scale (Douleur Aigue Nouveau ne scale). RESULTS: The difference in score of pain according to the DAN scale was significant in the two groups of patients (p = 0.000); the medium score was 5.15 for controls and 2.65 for cases (newborns sampled during breastfeeding). CONCLUSION: Our results confirmed the evidence of analgesic effect of breastfeeding during heel puncture. This procedure could easily be adopted routinely in maternity wards.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether polymorphisms of the HFE gene would modify the occurrence and the clinical features of cluster headache (CH). BACKGROUND: Recent studies suggested that iron metabolism may be involved in the pathophysiology of primary headaches. The HFE gene encodes for a protein that modulates iron absorption. Mutations in this gene are responsible for toxic iron overload in several body organs. METHODS: Genomic DNA was extracted from 109 CH patients and 211 age and sex-matched healthy controls and genotyped for the C282Y and H63D mutations of the HFE gene. Allele and genotype frequencies of the HFE gene were compared between cases and controls. The clinical characteristics of the disease were compared according to the different HFE gene genotypes. RESULTS: No C282Y mutation was found in both cases and controls. The prevalence of the H63D mutation was nearly identical in cases and controls. The four patients carrying the HFE D63D genotype showed a significantly (P < .001) later age at onset of the disease in comparison with both H63H and H63D patients. The remaining clinical characteristics of the disease did not significantly differ in the presence or absence of the H63D mutation. CONCLUSION: Our data do not support the hypothesis that genetic variations within the HFE gene are associated with CH. However, the HFE gene may influence the disease phenotype and may be regarded as a disease modifier gene.
