title: Birth asphyxia as the major complication in newborns: moving towards improved individual outcomes by prediction, targeted prevention and tailored medical care.
abstract: Perinatal Asphyxia-oxygen deficit at delivery-can lead to severe hypoxic ischaemic organ damage in newborns followed by a fatal outcome or severe life-long pathologies. The severe insults often cause neurodegenerative diseases, mental retardation and epilepsies. The mild insults lead to so-called "minimal brain-damage disorders" such as attention deficits and hyperactivity, but can also be associated with the development of schizophrenia and life-long functional psychotic syndromes. Asphyxia followed by re-oxygenation can potentially lead to development of several neurodegenerative pathologies, diabetes type 2 and cancer. The task of individual prediction, targeted prevention and personalised treatments before a manifestation of the life-long chronic pathologies usually developed by newborns with asphyxic deficits, should be given the extraordinary priority in neonatology and paediatrics. Socio-economical impacts of educational measures and advanced strategies in development of robust diagnostic approaches targeted at effected molecular pathways, biomarker-candidates and potential drug-targets for tailored treatments are reviewed in the paper.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Golubnitschaja
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yeghiazaryan
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cebioglu
authors.forename: Micaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morelli
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Herrera-Marschitz