[A premature baby with hair loss]. / Een premature baby met haarverlies.

A circular zone of hair loss was noted in a two-weeks old male baby, born prematurely. A painful and hyperemic caput succedaneum was diagnosed postpartum. The finding was diagnosed as halo scalp ring, caused by hypoxic-ischaemic tissue damage at the edge of the caput succedaneum, resulting in temporary hair loss.

[Transcutaneous bilirubinometry useful in the determination of hyperbilirubinaemia in icteric neonates]. / Transcutane bilirubinemeting geschikt voor de vaststelling van hyperbilirubinemie bij icterische pasgeborenen.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the usefulness of transcutaneous bilirubinometry in determining the need for phototherapy in neonates with hyperbilirubinaemia and to assess whether this technique may be used as an alternative to blood tests. DESIGN: Prospective, descriptive. METHOD: Serum bilirubin and both midfrontal and midsternal transcutaneous bilirubin were measured in icteric neonates admitted to the neonatal ward of the Kennemer Gasthuis, Haarlem, The Netherlands, between 1 March and 31 December 2005. The Minolta JM-103 jaundice meter was used for transcutaneous assessment. Data were interpreted with the aid ofa scatter plot, a 2-by-2 table and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve. RESULTS: A total of 70 matched transcutaneous-serum bilirubin measurements were taken from 50 patients, 22 girls and 28 boys. The mean gestational age was 66 hours (range: 12-164) and the mean birth weight was 2766 grams (range: 1680-4600). The mean duration of maternal amenorrhoea was 36.2 weeks (range: 32-41.3). The coefficient of correlation between serum bilirubin and mean transcutaneous midfrontal and midsternal bilirubin was o.88 and 0.91, respectively. The negative predictive value of mean transcutaneous midfrontal and midsternal bilirubin measurement was 0.91 and 0.87, respectively, indicating that phototherapy would be correctly avoided in 91 and 87% of children, respectively. Based on the area under the ROC curve, the transcutaneous midfrontal bilirubin measurement was more reliable than the midsternal measurement. CONCLUSION: Transcutaneous bilirubin measurement was useful in determining the need for phototherapy in neonates with hyperbilirubinaemia. Use of this non-invasive screening method may help to avoid unnecessary blood sampling in neonates.

Neonatal pulmonary arteriovenous malformation in hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia.

A 3 week old infant presented with persistent hypoxaemia and was diagnosed with pulmonary arteriovenous malformations. Her family history was positive for hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia. She was treated successfully with coil embolotherapy at the age of 4 months. Transcatheter embolisation may be considered the primary treatment for pulmonary arteriovenous malformations in infancy.