Sunday, February 1, 2015

New technology cutting hospital time for premature babies

New technology cutting hospital time for premature babies | Fox News: Every year, one out of every nine babies in the U.S. is born premature and can spend weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Now new technology is helping preemies grow faster – and sending them home sooner.

The Pea Pod is a medical device designed to measure the body composition of premature infants. The baby is placed in a heated chamber that looks like a small MRI machine for approximately three minutes. Using a special air displacement method, the machine senses change in pressure and can determine the percentage of body weight that is fat and the percentage that is lean body mass. With this information health care workers can then personalize the baby’s nutritional supplements to help with appropriate weight gain.

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