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Premature infants can get a serious inflammatory condition, called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), that damages parts of the intestines. It is the most common cause of illness of the intestinal tract in premature infants in the first few weeks of life. It is a very serious condition that can lead to death in up to half of affected infants. There is no way to predict whether an infant will get NEC, and there are no reliable early warning signals. There is no established preventive treatment for NEC.

The goal of this study is to develop a faster, safer, and more accurate method for determining if a newborn has an infection. This study involves analyzing saliva for markers of infection and inflammation known as cytokines. We will analyze infant’s saliva repeatedly for inflammatory biomarkers within the first 36 hours of their standard of care treatment. We hypothesize that levels of these cytokines will more quickly predict which babies are truly infected and which babies are not compared to the blood test currently being used.

The aims of the study are:

This study will evaluate infant vision health based on the history of prenatal drug exposure. Data from this study will be used to create a new process which will include vision health as part of the discharge planning for infants with prenatal drug exposure admitted to Tufts Medicine Pediatrics.