The Prolonged Neonatal Admission: Implications for our National Children's Hospital.

A significant number of neonates are admitted to tertiary paediatric units for prolonged stays annually, despite limited availability of neonatal beds. As the three Dublin paediatric hospitals merge, this pressure will be transferred to our new National Children's Hospital. We analysed epidemiological trends in prolonged neonatal admissions to the 14-bed neonatal unit in The Children's University Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin. This was with a view to extrapolating this data toward the development of a neonatal unit in the National Children's Hospital that could accommodate for this complex, important, and resource-heavy patient population. Four hundred and thirty-six babies between 0 and 28 days of life were admitted to our neonatal unit for prolonged stays (three cohorts: >1 month and <3months, >3months and <6months, and >6months), between 2000-2014. Mean number of prolonged admissions >1 month was 29.1 per year (range 18-43). Median length of stay (LOS) was 42 days (range 29-727). 363 babies were admitted for >1month but <3months with a median LOS 38 days (range 28-90); 54 babies were admitted for >3months but <6months with a median LOS 111 days (range 91-179); 19 babies were admitted for >6months with a median LOS 331 (range 196-727). There has been a statistically significant upward trend in the number of prolonged admissions over last fifteen years (Spearman's rho p=0.01, correlation coefficient 0.848). There has been no significant increase in the median length of stay over time. It can be extrapolated, that in the new children's hospital must be capable of dealing with at least 80 neonatal long-stay patients annually.

Late cardiac effects of chemotherapy in breast cancer survivors treated with adjuvant doxorubicin: 10-year follow-up.

Doxorubicin (Dox), a mainstay of adjuvant breast cancer treatment, is associated with cardiac toxicity in the form of left ventricular dysfunction (LVD), LV diastolic dysfunction, or LV systolic dysfunction. Study objectives were to evaluate the prevalence of LVD in long-term breast cancer survivors treated with Dox and determine if brain-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) may help identify patients at risk for LVD. Patients who participated in prospective clinical trials of adjuvant Dox-based chemotherapy for breast cancer with a baseline left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction evaluation from 1999 to 2006 were retrospectively identified from the St Vincent's University Hospital database. Patients were invited to undergo transthoracic echocardiography, BNP analysis, and cardiovascular (CV) risk factor assessment. LVDD was defined as left atrial volume index >34 mL/m(2) and/or lateral wall E prime <10 m/s, and LVSD as LVEF <50 %. Of 212 patients identified, 154 participated, 19 patients had died (no cardiac deaths), and 39 declined. Mean age was 60.7 [55:67] years. A majority of the patients (128, 83 %) had low CV risk (0/1 risk factors), 21 (13.6 %) had 2 RFs, and 5 (3.2 %) ≥3 RFs. BMI was 27.2 ± 4.9 kg/m(2). Median Dox dose was 240 mg/m(2) [225-298]; 92 patients (59.7 %) received ≤240 mg/m(2) and 62 (40.3 %) > 240 mg/m(2). Baseline LVEF was 68.2 ± 8 %. At follow-up of 10.8 ± 2.2 years, LVEF was 64.4 ± 6 %. Three (1.9 %) subjects had LVEF <50 % and one (0.7 %) had LVDD. Dox >240 mg/m2 was associated with any LVEF drop. BNP levels at follow-up were 20.3 pg/ml [9.9-36.5] and 21.1 pg/ml [9.8-37.7] in those without LVD and 61.5 pg/ml [50-68.4] in those with LVD (p = 0.04). Long-term prospective data describing the impact of Dox on cardiotoxicity are sparse. At over 10 years of follow-up, decreases in LVEF are common, and dose related, but LVD as defined is infrequent (2.6 %). Monitoring with BNP for subclinical LVD needs further evaluation.