Article

AIM: To explore whether active head lifting from supine (AHLS) in early infancy
is associated with cognitive outcome in the second year of life. METHOD: The
presence of AHLS was always recorded in the notes of infants admitted to our
tertiary neonatal intensive care unit. Random sampling was used to pair infants
with AHLS with two comparison infants without AHLS whose sex, gestational age,
birth year (1993-2009), time of assessment, and developmental test (Griffiths
Mental Development Scales, Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant
Development-II, or cognitive subtest of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler
Development-III) were comparable. Brain injury identified from neonatal cranial
ultrasound scans was classified as no - mild or moderate - severe. Z-scores of
cognitive test outcomes were calculated for multivariable analysis. RESULTS:
Eighty-seven preterm (34 males, 53 females) and 40 term (17 males, 23 females)
infants with AHLS were identified. AHLS was documented at a mean (corrected) age
of 7.0 (SD 1.7) and 8.1 (SD 2.2) months respectively. The cognitive assessments
were performed at a mean corrected age of 15.7 (SD 1.7) and 23.9 (SD 1.6) months
in preterm infants, and 19.1 (SD 2.3) months in term infants. The mean cognitive
outcome of preterm and term infants with AHLS was lower than that of infants
without AHLS (p=0.002 and p=0.004 respectively). This remained after excluding
infants with cerebral palsy with matching comparison infants (p=0.001 in preterm
and p=0.001 in term infants). The mean difference was highest (1.35SD) between
term male infants and comparison infants (p=0.001). INTERPRETATION: AHLS is
associated with a less favourable cognitive outcome in the second year of life in
preterm as well as in term-born infants than in comparison infants.
CI - (c) The Authors. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology (c) 2012 Mac Keith
Press.

Langue : ANGLAIS