Differences in behavioral outcome and motor development at school age after neonatal treatment for chronic lung disease with dexamethasone versus hydrocortisone.

Neonatal dexamethasone (DEX) for chronic lung disease is associated with adverse outcome. We compared behavioral and motor development at school age of children who neonatally received DEX to children neonatally treated with hydrocortisone (HC) in a retrospective matched cohort study. DEX- and HC-treated groups matched for gestational age, birth weight and year, gender, and severity of respiratory distress syndrome were compared with a reference group (REF) and a group treated only antenatally with betamethasone (BMETH).

Vestibulospinal component of postural control (vestibular function) in very preterm infants (25 to 27 weeks) at 3, 6, and 12 months corrected age.

Postural control, which is important for the development of all movement, balance, and locomotion, depends a great deal on the vestibulospinal component of vestibular function in early childhood. Vestibulospinal input is important for muscle power regulation, which, in turn, influences postural control. The aim of this study was to focus particularly on this component of vestibular function during the first year of life in 67 infants with a very short gestational age (25-27 weeks), to search for possible neonatal confounders, and to see whether it influences the course of muscle power development in preterm infants.

Muscle power development in preterm infants with periventricular flaring or leukomalacia in relation to outcome at 18 months.

Periventricular flaring (PVF) or periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) was diagnosed by brain ultrasound during the neonatal period in 44 infants (34 males, 10 females; mean gestational age 31 weeks 2 days, SD 2 weeks 1 day) admitted between 1995 and 1997. The infants were divided into three groups according to the severity of their condition. At 0, 3, and 6 months' corrected age an age-adequate neurological examination with special emphasis on the relation between active and passive muscle power was performed and symmetry between right and left sides was assessed.

Neuromotor function and school performance in 7-year-old children born as high-risk preterm infants.

Neuromotor behavior was studied in 63 children at a mean age of 7 years. They were born at a gestational age less than 32 weeks and/or birthweight under 1500 g and were categorized according to their medical history in conformance with the Neonatal Medical Index (from category I to V, from few to serious complications). We included only children considered at high risk as categorized in III to V.

Muscle power development during the first year of life predicts neuromotor behaviour at 7 years in preterm born high-risk infants.

The aim of the study was to find if neurological function during the first year of life could predict neuromotor behaviour at 7 years of age in children born preterm with a high risk. A follow-up study of neuromotor behaviour in 52 children at a mean age of 3, 6, 12 months (corrected age) and 7 years was performed. All children were born with a gestational age less than 32 weeks and/or a birthweight under 1500 g and the infants were categorised according to their medical history in the three highest categories of the 'Neonatal Medical Index' (NMI, from category I to V, from few to serious complications).