Neurodevelopmental profile in low birth weight infants at four months of age

Neurodevelopemental profile of 105 infants (85 LEW and 20 controls) was studied at 4 months of age. The study group included 85 LEW infants which comprised of group I-A healthy low birth weights (n 26) and group I-B sick low birth weights (n 59). There were 20 healthy term normal birth weight babies in group II which served as controls.

Neurodevelopmental examination was carried out by Amiel Tison's neurological examination and Bay ley's scale of infant development (BSID) for each baby. Overall poor performance of LEW was observed by both methods. 42.3% ofLBWs had problematic Amiel Tison i.e. suspect and abnormal cases, whereas only 11.7% of LEW s recorded poor performance on BSID (< 80). The results were statistically significant when compared to controls in terms of both tests. Among the LEW infants, sick LEW recorded MDI = 90.3 and PDI = 105.2 and healthy LEW had MDI96.1 and PDI of 114.9, the differences being statistically significant for PDI. Among the various neonatal problems studied, hyperbilirubinemia was the most frequent neonatal illness noted in 52.8% of cases. Of perinatal problems, septicemia was found to effect Amiel Tison examination adversely most frequently; (Odd's ratio - 5.8) followed by RDS with an old ratio of 3.18. Amiel Tison was able to pick up more cases of abnormality than BSID which is less sensitive (14% sensitive) but more specific (97%). Incidence of deafness in our study was 2.1%.