Journal of Pediatric Care

Description

Meconium is a mammalian infant's first stool that results from defecation. Not at all like later dung, is meconium made out of materials ingested during the time the baby spends in the uterus: Mucus, lanugo, intestinal epithelial cells, amniotic fluid, bile and water. Meconium, unlike later feces, is sticky and viscous like tar. It is almost odorless and usually has a very dark olive green color. When diluted in amniotic fluid, it can appear in a variety of colors, such as yellow, brown, or green. By the end of the first few days after birth, it should be gone completely, and the stools should turn yellow. Meconium is typically kept in the infant's bowel until after birth, but it can also be expelled into the amniotic fluid (also known as "amniotic liquor") prior to or during labor and delivery. The stained amniotic liquid (called "meconium alcohol" or "meconium-stained alcohol") is perceived by clinical staff as a potential indication of fetal pain. Meconium-stained liquor without fetal distress may also occur in some post-dates pregnancies when the woman is more than 40 weeks pregnant. In order to reduce the risk of meconium aspiration syndrome, which can occur in amniotic fluid that has been stained with meconium, medical personnel may aspirate the meconium from a newborn's mouth and nose as soon as they deliver the baby in the event that the baby exhibits signs of respiratory distress. Meconium will typically be evenly dispersed throughout the amniotic fluid when it is stained, turning the fluid brown. This suggests that the mixture was homogeneous after the fetus passed through the meconium sufficiently recently. When the fetus passes the meconium just before birth or a cesarean section, terminal meconium occurs. In this condition, the amniotic fluid remains clear, but individual clumps of meconium remain in the fluid.

Meconium-Stained Alcohol

The inability to pass meconium is a symptom of a number of conditions, including cystic fibrosis and Hirschsprung's disease. A condition known as meconium ileus occurs when the meconium in the intestines thickens and becomes congested. Meconium ileus is frequently the initial sign of cystic fibrosis. In cystic fibrosis, the meconium can create a bituminous, green-black mechanical obstruction in a portion of the ileum. Past this, there might be a couple of discrete dark white globular pellets. The bowel is a tiny, empty microcolon below this level. Several fluid-filled loops of hypertrophied bowel are present above the obstruction. Abdominal distension and vomiting begin shortly after birth, but no meconium is passed. Meconium ileus should be distinguished from meconium plug syndrome, in which a tenacious mass of mucus prevents the meconium from passing and there is no risk of intestinal perforation. The presence of meconium ileus is not related to the severity of the cystic fibrosis. The obstruction can be relieved in a number of different ways. Meconium ileus should not be confused with meconium plug syndrome. There is a significant risk of intestinal perforation in meconium ileus. Meconium ileus has a microcolon, whereas meconium plug syndrome has a normal or dilated colon in a barium enema. Meconium can be tested for a variety of drugs to check for exposure during pregnancy. Using meconium, a Canadian research team demonstrated that they could objectively detect excessive maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy by measuring Fatty Acid Ethyl Esters (FAEE), an alcohol byproduct. In the United States, the results of meconium testing may be used by child protective services and other law enforcement agencies to determine whether the parents are eligible to keep the newborn.

Fatty Acid Ethyl Esters

Meconium can also be analyzed to detect mothers' tobacco use during pregnancy, which is frequently under-reported. The question of whether meconium is sterile is still up for discussion and is the subject of ongoing research. Although some researchers have claimed that meconium contains bacteria, this has not always been confirmed. Other researchers have hypothesized that there may be bacteria in the womb, but these are a normal part of pregnancy and could have an important role in shaping the developing immune system and are not harmful to the baby. Other researchers have raised questions about whether these findings may be due to contamination after sample collection and that meconium is, in fact, sterile until after birth. A single case can result in up to twelve new cases in susceptible populations. A person's contagious period lasts from two days before the onset of symptoms to nine days after they stop. Vaccinated individuals who are infected appear to be less contagious than those who are not vaccinated. The average number of new cases generated from a single case in a susceptible population, called the basic reproduction number, is between 4 and 7. These factors are thought to be reasons why it is difficult to control the spread of the mumps. Additionally, reinfection can occur after a natural infection or vaccination, indicating that lifelong immunity is not guaranteed after infectionTo achieve herd immunity, an estimated vaccination rate of between 79 and 100 percent is required. However, outbreaks continue to occur in locations with vaccination rates exceeding 90%, indicating that disease transmission may be influenced by additional factors. The majority of outbreaks that have occurred in these vaccinated communities have occurred in extremely congested areas like school and military dorms. Many aspects of the mumps pathogenesis are poorly understood and primarily inferred from clinical symptoms and experimental infections in laboratory animals. Because the virus infects epithelial cells in the upper respiratory tract that express sialic acid receptors on their surface following exposure, these animal studies may not be reliable for a variety of reasons, including unnatural methods of inoculation. It is thought that shortly after infection, the virus spreads to lymph nodes, particularly T-cells, resulting in the presence of viruses in the blood, known as viremia. Viremia lasts for 7–10 days, during which MuV spreads throughout the body. "It has been recommended that suggestive contaminations in the immunized might be on the grounds that memory T lymphocytes created because of immunization might be important however lacking for assurance. Numerous indicators indicate that the immune system as a whole appears to have a relatively weak response to the mumps virus: It appears that non-neutralizing viral proteins are the primary target of antibody production, which may be low.