This workshop will focus on ethically problematic cases that arise in children's hospitals. We will cover cases from every pediatric age group. Our goal will be to model the sort of free-ranging ethical debate that we believe characterizes a vibrant ethics consultation service. Participants are welcome to bring cases from their own institutions. We will also bring some classic cases from our consult experience.
 

Didactic and case-based discussion of obesity and new formulas focused on practical pediatric office-based issues.

Obesity Treatment and Management in the Pediatric Office: What Can One Do?
William J. Klish, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Obesity Detection and Prevention from Office Pediatrician Perspective
Robert Murray, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

Formulas Additives Probiotics to Trace Elements—What Parents and Pediatricians Should Know
Judith O'Connor, University of Colorado, Children's Hospital, Denver, CO

Fatty Acid Supplementation of Formulas: Facts and Fictions
Frank R. Greer, University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Perinatal Center, Madison, WI

The Newborn Nursery SIG is a group of general and neonatal pediatricians who care for term newborns throughout our country and the world. We are working on problems in detecting and treating sepsis, jaundice and hypoglycemia in newborns and share our frustrations, best practice and solutions. We are striving to improve our family education and resident and medical student teaching in our nurseries. In our meetings, we have formal presentations, ask the expert sessions, planning discussions and question and answer exchanges. After our meetings, we continue our discussions through email questions and surveys. Our goal is to improve patient care, teaching and research questions in our term newborn nurseries.
 

This mini course will set the stage for several discussions of particular issues of major importance and interest. What is "preparedness" and what are the real risks of continuing terrorism in the United States? What is the current status of preparedness in the U.S. hospital and public health systems? How do children differ from adults in terms of response to weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological and radiological)? How do these differences matter in disaster planning? Are the needs of children being incorporated in local, state and federal disaster plans? Smallpox, anthrax and other biological threats: Where do we stand? What do we do? Nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons, dirty bombs and potassium iodide: What do we know? The mental health consequences of terrorism: What have we learned since 9/11, how do we prepare children for an increasingly vulnerable world, building resiliency and sustaining a positive vision. The new pediatric agenda: What do we have to teach students, residents and pediatricians about the pediatric aspects of terrorism planning. Children and exposure to weapons of mass destruction: science and the essential research agenda.

Introduction
Paul H. Saenger, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY

Welcome and Context
Irwin Redlener, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY

Pediatric Preparedness for Terrorism and Disasters
David S. Markenson, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY

Biological Weapons of Terror: What Pediatricians Need to Know
Theodore J. Cieslak, U.S. Army Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Ft. Detrick, MD

Helping Children and Families Cope with Terrorism
David J. Schonfeld, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT

Radiologic Terrorism, Children and the Question of Potassium Iodide
Thomas P. Foley, University of Pittsburgh, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Low Systemic Blood Flow in Preterm Infants
Nick Evans

Maintaining Cerebral Oxygen Delivery in Very Low Birth Weight Infants
Michael Weindling, Liverpool Women's Hospital, Liverpool, UK

Use of Pressors and Inotropes in the Treatment of Hypotensive Preterm Neonates
Istvan Seri, Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the Women's and Children's Hospital at the LAS/USC Medical Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Contact for information:
Istvan Seri, M.D., Ph.D.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Women’s and Children’s Hospital at the LAS/USC Medical Center, University of Southern California
Phone: (323) 669-5932
Email: iseri@chla.usc.edu

Supported by an educational grant from Dey, LP
 

The discussion will focus on advances in the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal jaundice as a means to understanding an investigative career in academic neonatology.

A Neonatologist and Newborn Jaundice: Reflections on an Academic Career
David K. Stevenson, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA
 

The goals of this informal session are to have a give-and-take discussion about balancing opportunism and careful planning in executing a career in academic medicine, with a special emphasis on neonatology.

The Academic Balancing Act—A Perspective from 20 Years in Neonatology
Samuel Hawgood, University of California Medical Center, San Francisco, CA
 

Micronutrients are essential to normal growth and development in infancy. Preterm and small-for-gestational-age infants are especially vulnerable to deficiencies. This symposium will focus on two fundamental nutrients: zinc and iron. Michael Hambidge will discuss the physiologic and metabolic importance of zinc during the perinatal period and the methods that can be used to assess zinc requirements. Nancy Krebs will discuss recent information about zinc homeostasis and requirements in premature and small-for-gestational-age infants. Stanley Zlotkin will discuss the etiology of iron deficiency in preterm infants during the first year of life and interventions to prevent it.

The Importance of Zinc in the Perinatal Period: An Overview
Kenneth Michael Hambidge, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO

Zinc Requirements in Premature and Small-for-Gestational-Age Infants
Nancy F. Krebs, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO

Meeting the Iron Needs of the Preterm Infant Throughout the First Year of Life
Stanley H. Zlotkin, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada

TLRs (Toll-like receptors) are a family of transmembrane germ line coded pattern recognition receptors that bind structural motifs common to pathogenic organisms. These structural motifs include endotoxin, products of gram+ organisms, fungi and mycobacteria, as well as DNA and RNA structures common to bacteria and virus but not mammalian cells. The TLRs are expressed by diverse cell types. TLR signaling initiates the innate immune/inflammatory host response to pathogens and also initiates antigen processing for acquired immunity.

Moshe Arditi will review the recent progress in understanding how children respond to pathogens. Maria Abreau will explore how immune signaling is central to both the maintenance of normal gut function and how chronic GI disease may develop. Christopher Karp will then explore how immune signaling relates to the hygiene hypothesis regarding the striking increase in the prevalence of both allergic and autoimmune diseases in children in Westernized countries over recent decades. The goal is to provide an update about newly described mechanisms signaling inflammation/immunity that are central to multiple homeostatic and disease processes in children.

Toll Like Receptors—Bridging Innate and Adaptive Immunity
Moshe Arditi, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA

TLR Signaling in the Gut in Health and Disease
Maria Abreu, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center / UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA

Signaling the Hygiene Hypothesis
Christopher Karp, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH

Children who are victims of violent behavior or merely observers of violence may learn destructive or self-destructive patterns of behavior. Violence is a major public health problem. This symposium will focus on breaking the cycle of violence and will showcase speakers who are working on violence prevention in the pediatric emergency department, school and community. The speakers will demonstrate what can be done by physicians who see the importance of this issue and the ways in which we can make a difference.

Violence Prevention in Primary Care: Moving from Public Health to Private Practice
Robert D. Sege, Tufts-New England Medical Center, Boston, MA

Beyond Treat and Street: Violence Prevention in the Emergency Department
Joel Fein, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, PA

Efforts in the Community
Sheryl A. Ryan, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, NY

Hot Topics in the Detection of Neonatal Infection

Contact for information:
David Kaufman, M.D.
University of Virginia Children’s Medical Center
Phone: (434) 924-9114
Email: davidkaufman@virginia.edu
 

Prevention of Prevention Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Injury—Management Strategies in the New Millenium

Magnesium—Is There a Role?
Abbot R. Laptook,

Hypothermia—What, Where and Why?
Alistair J. Gunn

Blocking Apoptotic Pathways—Is it Feasible?
Frances J. Northington, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

Contact for information:
Jeff Perlman, M.D.
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Phone: (214) 648-2060
Email: jeffery.perlman@utsouthwestern.edu
 

Current Topics in Breastfeeding and Pediatric Practice

The session addresses AAP Guidelines on breastfeeding, current research findings and applications to pediatric practice.

The AAP Breastfeeding Policy Statement: The 2004 Version
Lawrence M. Gartner, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Breastfeeding: Does it Protect Against Obesity in Childhood?
Kathryn Dewey, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA

Contact for information:
Ardythe L. Morrow, Ph.D.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Phone: (513) 636-7626
Email: Ardythe.Morrow@chmcc.org
 

Blood vessels perfuse all tissues in the body and play a vital function in mediating the exchange of metabolites between the tissues and the blood. However, recent experimental evidence indicates that endothelial cells play an important signaling role during embryonic development and cell differentiation. Understanding the nature of the interaction between endothelial cells and the surrounding cells and tissues will provide valuable insight into normal developmental mechanisms and may lead to important therapeutic approaches for a variety of diseases. In this symposium, we will discuss endothelial signaling in early organ development with a particular focus on the interactions that occur between airway and vascular cells during lung organogenesis and how these interactions are perturbed in lung injury and repair. In addition, we will discuss the biology of a molecule critical to development, VEGF, and its role during angiogenesis.

Endothelial Signaling During Embryonic Development
Ondine Cleaver, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Impaired Vascular and Alveolar Interactions in the Pathogenesis of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia
Steven H. Abman, The Children's Hospital, Denver, CO

Extracellular Matrix Imbalance and Abnormal Lung Morphogenesis
Mala Chinoy, Penn State University College of Medicine, Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA

New Insights in the Regulation of Angiogenesis by VEGF and Other Mediators
Napoleone Ferrara, Genentech, Inc., San Francisco, CA
 

The National Children’s Study is a national prospective, longitudinal study of environmental effects, including physical, chemical, biological and psychosocial effects, on child health and development. The goal of the study is to improve the health and well-being of children. The study will examine these environmental effects on the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21. The study is led by a consortium of federal agency partners: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS); the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). For additional information, visit the website at http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/.

The National Children’s Study—An Overview
Duane Alexander, NICHD, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

The National Children’s Study—Methods
Peter C. Scheidt, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

Children’s Health and Environmental Exposures: The Most Important Unanswered but Answerable Questions
Michael Weitzman, The AAP Center for Child Health Research at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

The application of imaging technologies to solving questions in biology and medicine is revolutionizing medicine by accelerating analyses in situ and in vivo and providing new perspectives on biological processes as diverse as development, neoplasia and injury repair. In this plenary session, three internationally recognized speakers will focus on developmental processes and discuss how these new imaging technologies are providing dynamic insights into the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that underpin hematopoiesis and vascular development.

Introduction
Lisa M. Guay-Woodford, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL

Dynamic Imaging of Fluid Forces in Developing Mouse Vasculature
Mary Dickinson, Beckman Institute–Caltech, Pasadena, CA

Microscopic Imaging of Angiogenesis
Donald M. McDonald, University of California, San Francisco, CA

Watching Hematopoietic Stem Cell Engraftment and Hematopoiesis in Living Animals
Christopher H. Contag, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA

Questions from the audience
 

This session will provide insight into the epigenetic mechanisms responsible for gene expression and its impact during development resulting in programming. These mechanisms may underlie interactions between different nutritional and environmental influences on gene expression. Various examples will be discussed, and the life-long impact of these processes on the phenotype described. This session will provide insight into the relationship between fetal/neonatal events and long-term effects that manifest as chronic adulthood diseases. The speakers will present various aspects of this phenomenon and its physiological outcome.

Evolution of Imprinted Disease Susceptibility Genes
Randy L. Jirtle, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC

The Contribution of Genomic Imprinting and Epigenetics to Phenotype
Arthur L. Beaudet, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Maternal Care, DNA Methylation and the Development of Individual Differences in Stress Reactivity
Michael Meaney, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
 

Vaccines have an important function in preventing birth defects. The most obvious one is rubella vaccine and its application for the purpose of preventing congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) will be discussed. In addition, prospects of the development of other relevant vaccines will be presented. These will include: cytomegalovirus, parvovirus, herpes simplex and malaria. The first three, because they affect the fetus directly; the last, because of its adverse effect on pregnancy that results in small-for-gestational-age newborns.

Elimination of Rubella from the Americas by the Year 2010
Mirta Roses Periago, Director of PAHO, Panamerican Health Organization (PAHO), Washington, DC

Prevention of CRS by Universal Application of the Rubella Vaccine
Susan E. Reef, Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA

Prospects for a Vaccine Against Cytomegalovirus
Stanley A. Plotkin, Aventis Pasteur and the University of Pennsylvania, Doylestown, PA

Prospects for a Vaccine Against Herpes Simplex
Richard J. Whitley, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Children's Hospital, Birmingham, AL

Prospects for a Vaccine Against Parvovirus B-19
Neal S. Young, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

Prospects for a Vaccine Against Malaria
N. Regina Rabinovich, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA

Discussion

Genetic studies in humans have expanded our understanding of pediatric sudden death. This session will explore the genetic mechanism, pathophysiology and potential treatments of three genetic causes of sudden death in children.

Introduction
James Bristow, University of California, San Francisco, CA

Fatty Acid Oxidation Disorders and Sudden Death
Arnold W. Strauss, Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, Nashville, TN

Cardiac Channelopathies and Pediatric Sudden Death
Jeffrey A. Towbin, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and Sudden Death
Christine Seidman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA
 

Possible Protective Role of ABC Transporters in Bilirubin Encephalopathy
J. Donald Ostrow, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA

Implications of the New AAP Guidelines for the Management of Near-Term and Term Neonates with Hyperbilirubinemia
M. Jeffrey Maisels, William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI

Contact for information:
David K. Stevenson, M.D.
Stanford University School of Medicine
Phone: (650)723-5711
EMail: dstevenson@stanford.edu

Contact for information:
Jane McGowan, M.D.
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Phone: (410) 955-4565
Email: jmcgowan@jhmi.edu

Worldwide, more than 1,500 children per day become infected with HIV through mother-to-child transmission. Currently there are 2.7 million children living with HIV infection across the globe, >90% of whom reside in developing countries. While there have been enormous successes in the prevention and treatment of pediatric AIDS in the United States and Europe, it remains an open question as to how effectively these public health gains can be replicated in the poor countries of the world, which bear the greatest burden of disease. Efforts to develop an HIV vaccine appropriate for preventing infection among the world's children and adolescents are finally under way on a global scale. We will discuss these issues and accompanying controversies as they apply to the children of the developing world.

AIDS in Children—A Global Public Health Crisis
David L. Pugatch, Hasbro Children's Hospital and Brown Medical School, Providence, RI

Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV in Developing Countries—Successes, Failures and Challenges
Catherine M. Wilfert, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Santa Monica, CA and Washington, DC

HIV Treatment for Children—Can the Successes of Rich Countries Be Duplicated in Resource-Poor Settings?
Mark W. Kline, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Finding an AIDS Vaccine That Works for the World's Children
Richard A. Koup, Vaccine Research Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

Despite continuing advances in neonatal care, bronchopulmonary dysplasia remains a vexing problem for neonatologists, other pediatric subspecialists, and general pediatricians. As our understanding of BPD improves, our expectation is that new targets for combating this condition will emerge. Today’s session is designed to explore new findings of biological importance relevant to the pathogenesis of BPD and to stimulate discussion about possible hypotheses for its treatment.

Cellular and Molecular Targets in Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia
Steven R. Seidner, University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio, TX

Sublethal Oxygen Exposure and Mechanisms of Lung injury
A. Keith Tanswell, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada

Neuropeptides, Immunity and BPD
Mary Sunday, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA

TGF-ß and the Regulation of Lung Remodeling
David Warburton, Children's Hospital, Los Angeles Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA
 

This session presents the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience from a clinical perspective. Typical and atypical language development in children serves as the focus of this session. The impact of recently available magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques such as volumetric MRI and functional MRI (fMRI) will be illustrated. An overview of volumetric MRI and fMRI methods will be presented with developmental and clinically relevant examples. fMRI in typically developing children as compared to adults for a single word processing task will be presented and the possibility that differences represent maturational changes in functional neuroanatomy will be discussed. The application of volumetric imaging and fMRI to the study of a clinically relevant group of children at risk for cognitive deficits, i.e. children born as premature infants, will show how fMRI for non-invasive but quantitative assessment of language processing can be utilized. Finally, results from fMRI study of children with developmental dyslexia will be presented that show disruption in posterior brain neural circuits for reading.

Introduction: Overview of Volumetric and Functional MRI Techniques
Michael Rivkin, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Differences in fMRI Activation Between Adults and Children in Single Word Processing
Brad Schlaggar, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO

Use of fMRI and Volumetric Imaging To Study Language Processing and Its Cognitive Correlates in Children Born as Premature Infants
Laura R. Ment, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT

New Insights into the Functional Neuroanatomy of Developmental Dyslexia
Bennett A. Shaywitz, Yale University Medical Center, New Haven, CT
 

When and Why Infants Don't Breathe: Biologic Basis for Therapeutic Strategies
Richard J. Martin, Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, Cleveland, OH

Contact for information:
Roberta A. Ballard, M.D.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Phone: (215)590-1653
Email: ballard@email.chop.edu

Supported by an educational grant from Ross Pediatrics
 

In 1929, a visionary band of 25 pediatric physician-scientists, spurred by their passion for science and their commitment to children, founded the Society for Pediatric Research. In the intervening 75 years, pediatric investigators have wrought a breathtaking suite of therapeutic breakthroughs—from the care of premature neonates, to effective immunoprotection from childhood disease, to novel therapeutic strategies for childhood leukemia. More recently, the completion of the Human Genome Project has identified new opportunities to delineate the impact of genetic variation on childhood disease expression.

Four leaders in Pediatric Research will celebrate the accomplishments of the past 75 years and share their perspectives about the challenges that lay before us.

Introduction
Gail J. Demmler, President, Society for Pediatric Research

The Problem of Prematurity: The Impact of Surfactant and the Challenge of Long-Term Morbidity
Samuel Hawgood, University of California Medical Center, San Francisco, CA

The Problem of Childhood Infectious Diseases: The Impact of Vaccine Development and the Challenge of Emerging Infections
Margaret K. Hostetter, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT

The Problem of Childhood Leukemia: The Impact of Combination Chemotherapy and the Challenge of Neuro-cognitive Morbidity
Alan L. Schwartz, Washington University Medical Center, St. Louis, MO

The Problem of Genetic Disease: The Impact of the Human Genome Project and the Challenge of Translation to Innovative Therapy
Edward R. B. McCabe, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA

Neonatal encephalopathy, if severe, can lead to Cerebral Palsy. Cerebral Palsy is not a diagnosis, but rather a constellation of motor signs that are non-progressive and have multiple etiologies. Unfortunately, Cerebral Palsy affects a large number of children, but its causes, especially those that might be remedial or preventable, remain obscure in the majority of cases. Since neonatal encephalopathy is thought to be one of the neonatal etiologies of cerebral palsy, this session will focus on this issue from the perspectives of an epidemiologist, neonatal neurologist and pediatric neuroradiologist who each will speak to this issue from a different perspective.

Antecedents of Cerebral Palsy—Why Can't We Prevent It?
Karin Nelson, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, MD

Intrapartum Asphyxia Brain Damage in the Fullterm Infant
Robert C. Vannucci, Penn State University, Hershey, PA

Imaging Neonatal Encephalopathy
Anthony Barkovich, University of California, San Francisco, CA

Panel Discussion
 

The symposium will be held on May 4, 2004 at the Moscone West Convention Center (8:00am–3:30pm). The symposium will bring together a distinguished, international group of scientists and clinicians to discuss several major childhood health problems of global significance, including:

• Micronutrient deficiency in childhood
• Perinatal aspects of maternal malaria and tuberculosis
• Genetic susceptibility to malaria and tuberculosis

Researchers are invited to submit abstracts relating to the above topics. Abstracts concerning other global health issues suitable for presentation to a diverse audience of paediatric scientists and clinicians will also be considered. Selected abstracts will be chosen for symposium or poster presentations.

Wednesday, May 5, 8:00am – 5:00pm ~ Hilton San Francisco Hotel

The workshop will be held on May 5, 2004, at the Hilton San Francisco (8:00am – 5:00pm). It will provide an opportunity for individual scientists and clinicians interested in global childhood health issues, and representatives of participating societies, with the unique opportunity to help shape the direction of this new initiative. Plenary sessions and small group meetings will be used to plan for the future of the Programme for Global Paediatric Research. Topics will include:

• Establishing international communication between scientists
• The role of societies and paediatric research organizations in the study of global health problems
• Defining global health problems suitable for collaborative research
• Sites and topics for subsequent symposia

Contact for information:
Professor Alvin Zipursky
Hospital for Sick Children
555 University Ave.
Toronto, Ontario Canada M5G 1X8
Email: alvin.zipursky@sickkids.ca
Phone: 416-813-8760

Participating organizations are: The American Pediatric Society, Chinese Pediatric Society, International Pediatric Association, Japanese Pediatric Society, Pediatric Research, and the Society for Pediatric Research.
 

Sequencing of the human genome has led to extraordinary acceleration in the pace of genomics research. The large sequencing capacity developed during sequencing of the human genome is now being applied to other genomes and re-sequencing of humans. This session will explore the remarkable utility of sequence comparison for understanding gene regulation and function as well as new understanding of the basis of common human diseases.

Multiple Genome Sequence Comparisons To Understand Gene Regulation
Eddy Rubin, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA

Human Sequence Variation and Disease Gene Identification
David R. Cox, Perlegen Sciences, Mountain View, CA

Large-Scale Resequencing of Candidate Genes in Congenital Heart Disease
Deepak Srivastava, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX

Premature birth accounts for nearly 75% of the neonatal mortality and up to 50% of the long-term neurologic disability in children. In the United States, the incidence of premature birth has not decreased over the past 40 years and, in fact, despite considerable investigational, public health and clinical effort, has increased slightly in the past decades. The faculty of this session will discuss the epidemiology of premature birth and our current understanding of the etiology of premature labor. Current and future investigational, interventional and therapeutic strategies will be outlined.

Biological Influences on the Premature Labor
Robert L. Goldenberg, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL

Insights from Clinical Trials in the Management of Premature Labor
Jay Donald Iams, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

Currently, there is debate regarding the optimal strategy for initial and ongoing respiratory support in preterm infants (e.g., nasal CPAP, nasal non-invasive ventilation, endotracheal mechanical ventilation) with a particular focus on reducing later bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). This session will explore the pathophysiology behind the strategies involved, how to "fine-tune" those strategies and will provide in-depth analysis of current data examining various modes of respiratory support for the premature infant.

Introduction
Rita M. Ryan, State University of New York at Buffalo, Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

Delivery Room and Early Respiratory Support of the Premature Infant: To Intubate or Not To Intubate?
Neil N. Finer, University of California, San Diego, CA

How Can We Optimize Conventional Ventilation in Preterm Neonates?
Steven M. Donn, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI

Discussion/Questions
Discussion ,

Has High-Frequency Ventilation Fulfilled the Promise To Reduce BPD?
David Henderson-Smart, Centre for Perinatal Health Services Research, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Noninvasive Ventilation in the Neonate: Will This Decrease BPD?
Keith J. Barrington, Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Canada

Discussion/Questions