Nigel Paneth is a pediatrician and perinatal and child health epidemiologist with a particular interest in the causes and prevention of childhood neurodevelopmental handicap, especially cerebral palsy. He received his medical degree from Harvard in 1972, trained in pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in NYC from 1972-1976, and received the MPH in epidemiology from Columbia University in 1978.

Dr. Paneth began his academic career at Columbia University in 1978 where he conducted studies of the relationship of perinatal medical care to patterns of fetal and infant mortality, particularly in premature infants [1]. This was followed by studies of the neurodevelopment of children born prematurely and its relationship to patterns of perinatal brain damage. He established the Neonatal Brain Hemorrhage Study, a population-based longitudinal follow-up of cohort of more than a thousand infants who weighed < 2 kg at birth which was followed, with NIH support, for more than 20 years [2]. This study has produced a comprehensive overview of brain damage in premature infants, based on its large series of such infants with both ultrasound imaging and brain pathological examination [3]. The study has also determined which newborn cranial ultrasound images best predict cerebral palsy [4], has assessed the effects of prenatal alcohol ingestion [5] and mode of delivery [6] on brain damage, and has shown that certain newborn ultrasound images predict mental retardation [7] and hyperactivity [8]. The study has demonstrated that low levels of thyroid hormone in the first days of life are important predictors of lowered IQ and cerebral palsy [9], and has shown that patterns of mechanical ventilation of newborns are associated with different risks of disabling cerebral palsy [10].

Dr. Paneth came to the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University in 1989 to develop a Program in Epidemiology. The Program became a Department in 1997, with Paneth serving from 1997 – 2002 as its first chair.  He also served as Associate Dean for Research of the College from 2000-2006.  From 1996-99, Dr. Paneth led an international study of low birthweight outcomes (Holland, Canada, Germany, US, Jamaica). A key finding from that study is a much higher rate of disabling CP in premature infants born at the border of viability in a US population, where intensive care was universal, than in Holland, where such care was more selectively offered [11]. That study also found that patterns of behavioral disorders in babies weighing under 1000g at birth are remarkably similar in different countries [12], and the prevalence of school problems in childhood is high for such children in all four countries [13].   At the present time, Dr. Paneth participates in an NIH-funded multi-hospital observational study of molecular antecedents of brain damage in infants born prior to 28 weeks gestation [14], and has just completed an international Phase 1-2 study of thyroid hormone supplementation in such infants, also funded by NIH [15]. Since 2005, he directs the nation’s only NIH-funded T-32 research training program devoted to providing both pre and post-doctoral training in perinatal epidemiology. 

From 2001-2004, Dr. Paneth served as non-federal chair of the Study Design Working Group of the National Children’s Study (NCS) (www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov). That study, now in the field, plans to enroll 100,000 children, who are to be studied from prior to conception to age 21 in 105 counties selected to provide a representative sample of the US.  Dr. Paneth serves as Principal investigator of the Michigan Alliance for the NCS, a consortium of Michigan institutions (Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, the Henry Ford Health Center and the Michigan Department of Community Health) formed to conduct the NCS in the five Michigan counties in the sample: Genesee, Grand Traverse, Lenawee, Macomb and Wayne. 

Dr. Paneth has a strong interest in epidemiologic history, reflected in his work on the history of case-control studies [16, 17] and his participation as a co-author of a 2003 biography of the 19th century father of epidemiology and scientific anesthesia, John Snow [18]

Cited Publications

 1.      Paneth N, Kiely JL, Wallenstein S, Marcus M, Pakter J, Susser MW. Newborn intensive care and neonatal mortality in low birthweight infants: A population study. New Eng J Med 1982; 307:149-155.

2.      Pinto-Martin J, Paneth N, Witomski T, Stern I, Schonfeld S, Rosenfeld D, Rose W, Kazam E, Kairam R, Katsikiotis V, Susser M. The central New Jersey neonatal brain hemorrhage study: Design of the study and reliability of ultrasound diagnosis. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 1992; 6:273-284.

3.      Paneth N, Rudelli R, Kazam E, Monte W. Brain Damage in the Preterm Infant. (Clinics in Developmental Medicine No. 131). London: Mac Keith Press, 1994.

4.      Pinto-Martin J, Riolo S, Cnaan A, Holzman C, Susser MW, Paneth N. Cranial ultrasound prediction of disabling and non-disabling cerebral palsy in a low birthweight population. Pediatrics 1995; 95:249-254.

5.      Holzman C, Paneth N, Little R, Pinto-Martin J: Perinatal brain injury in premature infants born to mothers using alcohol in pregnancy. Pediatrics 1995; 95:66-73.

6.      Qiu, H, Lorenz JL, Lenski M, Pinto-Martin JA, Jetton J, Paneth N: Obstetric factors in brain damage, disabling cerebral palsy and neonatal death in low birthweight infants.  Am J Obstet Gynecol 2003; 189: 1143-9.

7.      Whitaker AH, Feldman JF, Van Rossem R, Schonfeld IS, Pinto-Martin JA, Torre C, Blumenthal SR, Paneth N. Neonatal cranial ultrasound abnormalities: Relation to cognitive outcomes at age six. Pediatrics 1996; 98:719-729.

8.      Whitaker A, Van Rossem R, Feldman J, Schonfeld I, Torre C, Pinto-Martin J, Blumenthal S, Shaffer D, Paneth N. Perinatal brain injury as detected by neonatal cranial ultrasound: psychiatric sequelae in LBW children at age six. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1997; 54:847-856.

9.      Reuss L, Paneth N, Lorenz JM, Pinto-Martin J, Susser M. Transient hypothyroxinemia in preterm infants and neurodevelopment at age two. New England J Med 1996; 334:821-827.

10.  Collins M, Paneth N, Lorenz J. Hypocapnia, prolonged ventilation, and risk of disabling cerebral palsy in low birth weight infants. Pediatric Research 2001; 50:712-719.

11.  Lorenz JM, Paneth N, Jetton JR, den Ouden L, Tyson JE: Comparison of management strategies for extreme prematurity in New Jersey and the Netherlands: outcomes and resource expenditures. Pediatrics 2001;108;1269-1274.

12.  Hille ETM, den Ouden AL, Wolke DFH, Saigal S, Hoult L, Lambert M, Meyer RA, Whitaker A, Pinto-Martin J, Feldman J, Verloove-Vanhorick P, Paneth N: Consistency in the types of behavioral problems reported in extremely low birthweight infants in four countries. Lancet 2001; 357:1641-3.

13.  Saigal S, den Ouden L, Wolke D, Hoult L, Paneth N, Streiner DL, Whitaker A, Pinto-Martin JA: School-age outcomes in children who were extremely low birth weight from four international population-based cohorts. Pediatrics 2003;112:943-50.

14.  Dammann O, Phillips TM, Allred E, O'Shea TM, Paneth N, Van Marter LJ, Bose C, Ehrenkranz RA, Bednarek FJ, Naples M, and Leviton A. Mediators of fetal inflammation in extremely low gestational age newborns. Cytokine 2001; 13:234-239.

15.  La Gamma E, van Wassenaer AG, Ares S, Golombek S, Kok JH, Quero J, Hong T, Rahbar MH, Morreale de Escobar G, Fisher DA, Paneth N: A randomized trial of four thyroid hormone regimens for transient hypothyroxinemia in neonates < 28 weeks gestation: the THOP 1 trial (in submission)

16.  Paneth N, Susser E, Susser MW.  The early history and development of the case-control study. Part I . Early evolution.  Social & Preventive Medicine 2002; 47:5: 282-288.

17.  Paneth N, Susser E, Susser MW.  The early history and development of the case-control study. Part II. The case-control study since Lane-Claypon. Social & Preventive Medicine 2002;47:6:359-365.

18.  Vinten-Johansen P, Brody H, Paneth N, Rachman S, Rip M: Cholera, Chloroform, and the Science of Medicine: A Life of John Snow. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.