GC sheds light on pharma needs of newborns

The pharma needs of infected newborns are an area for future development, particularly with respect to their metabolic response, according to an article in Nutrition & Metabolism.

Researchers including scientists at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, used gas chromatography to look into the oxygen and carbon dioxide exchanged by 19 newborns with bacterial sepsis.

They examined both the acute stages and the recovery stages of the babies' illness, in order to determine the factors that might play a part in determining the correct pharma response to meet their needs.

"Rest energy expenditure of septic newborns should be calculated on an individualised basis, bearing in mind their metabolic capabilities," they assert.

The researchers add that the controversy surrounding how best to treat sepsis in newborns relates to both their energy metabolism and their nutritional needs.

Nutrition & Metabolism is an open-access journal published online and containing peer-reviewed articles in fields such as gene expression, dietary phenomena and the cellular biology of nutrients.