The age of necrotizing enterocolitis onset: an application of Sartwell's incubation period model
Open Access
- 27 January 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Journal of Perinatology
- Vol. 31 (8), 519-523
- https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2010.193
Abstract
Objective: Model age of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) onset applying Sartwell's model of incubation periods, and examine its relationship to gestational age (GA). Study Design: Retrospective chart review of St Louis Children's Hospital neonates diagnosed with NEC (⩾Bell's stage II) from 2004 to 2008, inclusive. Result: The relationship between age of NEC (N=84 cases) onset and GA best fits a non-linear model, with infants ⩽28 weeks having a disproportionately longer time to onset than older GA groups and explained 50.3% of the variability in age of NEC onset. Additional clinical variables provided no improvement in explaining age of NEC onset. Application of Sartwell's model to age of NEC onset proved a good fit, when birth is used as the common exposure episode, and age is equivalent of the incubation period. Conclusion: The relationship between day of NEC diagnosis and GA is non-linear, with lower GA infants having disproportionately longer time to onset. Despite these GA differences, the fit to Sartwell's model for incubation periods model is consistent with NEC being a consequence of an event that occurs at or soon after birth.Keywords
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