Joseph Volpe | |
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Born | December 17, 1938 |
Occupation | Child neurologist |
Notable work | Neurology of the Newborn |
Joseph J. Volpe (born December 17, 1938) [1] [2] is an American physician, the Bronson Crothers Professor of Neurology, Emeritus at Harvard Medical School and Neurologist-in-Chief Emeritus at Boston Children's Hospital. He was an early contributor to the field of neonatal neurology and has authored several editions of an influential textbook, Neurology of the Newborn.
Volpe earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School before completing training at Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Institutes of Health. His early career was spent as the Stein Professor of Neurology and Director of the Division of Pediatric Neurology at Washington University in St. Louis. He came to Boston Children's Hospital in 1990. [2]
In the 1980s, Volpe devised a classification system for a newborn brain condition known as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. [3] He also proposed one of two grading scales for a type of newborn brain bleeding known as intraventricular hemorrhage. [4] Volpe's later research has involved periventricular leukomalacia, a type of white matter brain injury that is closely associated with cerebral palsy risk. [5]
At least two of Volpe's studies with newborn babies received significant attention in the mass media. In 1983, he found that the rate of intraventricular hemorrhage among small premature infants was much higher than previously thought. [6] In 1992, he wrote a review detailing the neurological effects of fetal cocaine exposure. [7]
Volpe is the author of Neurology of the Newborn; several editions have been published. After the third edition was published in 1995, Laura Ment wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that the book's 1981 emergence "lent formal recognition to the emerging concept that the neurologic problems of the developing brain were uniquely different from those of the brains of adults and older children." [3]
In 1997, Volpe was elected to the Institute of Medicine. [8] He was selected by the American Academy of Pediatrics to deliver the 2012 William A. Silverman Lecture. [9]
The Moro reflex is an infantile reflex that develops between 28 and 32 weeks of gestation and disappears at 3–6 months of age. It is a response to a sudden loss of support and involves three distinct components:
Neonatology is a subspecialty of pediatrics that consists of the medical care of newborn infants, especially the ill or premature newborn. It is a hospital-based specialty and is usually practised in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). The principal patients of neonatologists are newborn infants who are ill or require special medical care due to prematurity, low birth weight, intrauterine growth restriction, congenital malformations, sepsis, pulmonary hypoplasia, or birth asphyxia.
A neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), also known as an intensive care nursery (ICN), is an intensive care unit (ICU) specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants. The NICU is divided into several areas, including a critical care area for babies who require close monitoring and intervention, an intermediate care area for infants who are stable but still require specialized care, and a step down unit where babies who are ready to leave the hospital can receive additional care before being discharged.
Perinatal asphyxia is the medical condition resulting from deprivation of oxygen to a newborn infant that lasts long enough during the birth process to cause physical harm, usually to the brain. It remains a serious condition which causes significant mortality and morbidity. It is also the inability to establish and sustain adequate or spontaneous respiration upon delivery of the newborn, an emergency condition that requires adequate and quick resuscitation measures. Perinatal asphyxia is also an oxygen deficit from the 28th week of gestation to the first seven days following delivery. It is also an insult to the fetus or newborn due to lack of oxygen or lack of perfusion to various organs and may be associated with a lack of ventilation. In accordance with WHO, perinatal asphyxia is characterised by: profound metabolic acidosis, with a pH less than 7.20 on umbilical cord arterial blood sample, persistence of an Apgar score of 3 at the 5th minute, clinical neurologic sequelae in the immediate neonatal period, or evidence of multiorgan system dysfunction in the immediate neonatal period. Hypoxic damage can occur to most of the infant's organs, but brain damage is of most concern and perhaps the least likely to quickly or completely heal. In more pronounced cases, an infant will survive, but with damage to the brain manifested as either mental, such as developmental delay or intellectual disability, or physical, such as spasticity.
Children's National Hospital is a nationally ranked, freestanding, 323-bed, pediatric acute care children's hospital located in Washington D.C. It is affiliated with the George Washington University School of Medicine and the Howard University College of Medicine. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout the region. The hospital features an ACS verified level I pediatric trauma center, the only one in the District of Columbia. Its pediatric intensive care unit and neonatal intensive care units serve the region. The hospital also has a rooftop helipad for critical pediatric transport.
Germinal matrix hemorrhage is a bleeding into the subependymal germinal matrix with or without subsequent rupture into the lateral ventricle. Such intraventricular hemorrhage can occur due to perinatal asphyxia in preterm neonates.
Montreal Children's Hospital is a children's hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1904, it is affiliated with the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University, Faculty of Medicine.
Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital is a pediatric acute care children's teaching hospital located in Cleveland, Ohio. It is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and has a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), and level 1 pediatric trauma center.
Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), also known as intraventricular bleeding, is a bleeding into the brain's ventricular system, where the cerebrospinal fluid is produced and circulates through towards the subarachnoid space. It can result from physical trauma or from hemorrhagic stroke.
Etamsylate is an antihemorrhagic agent which is believed to work by increasing resistance in the endothelium of capillaries and promoting platelet adhesion. It also inhibits biosynthesis and action of those prostaglandins which cause platelet disaggregation, vasodilation and increased capillary permeability.
Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, also known as Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care children's teaching hospital and entity of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The hospital is affiliated with Vanderbilt University School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics.
Dr. Karthik Nagesh is a neonatologist in India. He has been practicing neonatal intensive care since 1992 at the Manipal Hospital in Bangalore. He is well known in India for his pioneering work in intensive care for sick neonates especially, Surfactant Therapy and ventilation for sick babies with respiratory distress. He is currently the Chairman of the Manipal Advanced Children's Center and Chairman and HOD of Neonatology and Neonatal ICUs at the Manipal Hospitals Group as well as an adjunct professor of paediatrics, KMC at Manipal University.
Certified in Neonatal Pediatric Transport (C-NPT) is the designation in the USA for a paramedic, physician, respiratory therapist, neonatal nurse, nurse practitioner, nurse or physician assistant who has earned certification from the National Certification Corporation in neonatal and pediatric transport. This certificate of added qualification was rolled out in 2009. National Certification Corporation utilizes applied measurement professionals to administer its tests.
A neonatal seizure is a seizure in a baby younger than age 4-weeks that is identifiable by an electrical recording of the brain. It is an occurrence of abnormal, paroxysmal, and persistent ictal rhythm with an amplitude of 2 microvolts in the electroencephalogram,. These may be manifested in form of stiffening or jerking of limbs or trunk. Sometimes random eye movements, cycling movements of legs, tonic eyeball movements, and lip-smacking movements may be observed. Alteration in heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, salivation, pupillary dilation, and other associated paroxysmal changes in the autonomic nervous system of infants may be caused due to these seizures. Often these changes are observed along with the observance of other clinical symptoms. A neonatal seizure may or may not be epileptic. Some of them may be provoked. Most neonatal seizures are due to secondary causes. With hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy being the most common cause in full term infants and intraventricular hemorrhage as the most common cause in preterm infants.
Cranial ultrasound is a technique for scanning the brain using high-frequency sound waves. It is used almost exclusively in babies because their fontanelle provides an "acoustic window". A different form of ultrasound-based brain scanning, transcranial Doppler, can be used in any age group. This uses Doppler ultrasound to assess blood flow through the major arteries in the brain, and can scan through bone. It is not usual for this technique to be referred to simply as "cranial ultrasound". Additionally, cranial ultrasound can be used for intra-operative imaging in adults undergoing neurosurgery once the skull has been opened, for example to help identify the margins of a tumour.
Children's Hospital at Erlanger is a 118-bed, tertiary care children's hospital located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The hospital serves as the pediatric center of excellence for Erlanger Health System, the tenth largest public health system in the United States. Children's Hospital at Erlanger treats infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0-21. It is located adjacent to Erlanger Baroness Hospital, just east of downtown Chattanooga.
Gerhard Jorch is a German pediatrician. He is Professor for general pediatrics and neonatology at the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg and director of the University children's hospital.
Perinatal stroke is a disease where an infant has a stroke between the 140th day of the gestation period and the 28th postpartum day, affecting up to 1 in 2300 live births. This disease is further divided into three subgroups, namely neonatal arterial ischemic stroke, neonatal cerebral sinovenous ischemic stroke, and presumed perinatal stroke. Several risk factors contribute to perinatal stroke including birth trauma, placental abruption, infections, and the mother's health.
Christian P. Speer is a German pediatrician and Professor of Pediatrics specialized in neonatology at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg. Speer is known for his scientific and educational contributions in neonatal medicine.
Jerold Francis Lucey was an American pediatrician and journal editor. He specialised in the field of neonatology, and introduced several therapies to mainstream use in the United States, including phototherapy for neonatal jaundice, transcutaneous oxygen monitoring, and pulmonary surfactant use.