Intra-uterine exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), maternal psychopathology, and neurodevelopment at age 2.5years - Results from the prospective cohort SMOK study.

Background: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are prescribed in 2-8% during pregnancy. Whether prenatal exposure to SSRIs has long-term effects on the children's development is unknown.

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of prenatal exposure to SSRIs on children's cognitive, motor, and behavioral outcomes at 2.

The effect of enteral bolus feeding on regional intestinal oxygen saturation in preterm infants is age-dependent: a longitudinal observational study.

Background: The factors that determine the effect of enteral feeding on intestinal perfusion after preterm birth remain largely unknown. We aimed to determine the effect of enteral feeding on intestinal oxygen saturation (rSO) in preterm infants and evaluated whether this effect depended on postnatal age (PNA), postmenstrual age (PMA), and/or feeding volumes. We also evaluated whether changes in postprandial rSO affected cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO).

Prenatal exposure to persistent organic pollutants and cognition and motor performance in adolescence.

Background: Prenatal exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), was found to be associated with poorer neurological development in children. Knowledge about the effects on outcomes until adolescence is limited.

Objectives: To determine whether prenatal exposure to POPs, particularly hydroxylated PCBs (OH-PCBs), is associated with cognitive and motor development in 13- to 15-year-old children.

Red Blood Cell Transfusions Affect Intestinal and Cerebral Oxygenation Differently in Preterm Infants with and without Subsequent Necrotizing Enterocolitis.

Objective: To assess intestinal and cerebral oxygenation during and after red blood cell (RBC) transfusions in preterms with or without subsequent transfusion-associated necrotizing enterocolitis (TANEC).

Study Design: In preterms of < 32 weeks' gestational age, we measured intestinal and cerebral regional tissue oxygen saturation (rSO, rSO) and their variabilities using near-infrared spectroscopy during and after transfusions. We compared eight infants who developed TANEC 6 to 48 hours after RBC transfusions with 16 controls.

The Predictive Value of Amplitude-Integrated Electroencephalography in Preterm Infants for IQ and Other Neuropsychological Outcomes at Early School Age.

Background: Amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) is used increasingly in neonatal intensive care and seems helpful in predicting outcomes at the age of 2 years.

Objectives: To determine whether early aEEG patterns in preterm infants are equally useful in predicting outcomes at early school age.

Methods: We recorded aEEG in 41 preterms (gestational age 26.

Functional outcome at school age of children born with gastroschisis.

Objective: We aimed to determine motor, cognitive and behavioural outcomes of school aged children born with gastroschisis compared to matched controls.

Study Design: We compared outcomes of 16 children born with gastroschisis treated at the University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands, between 1999 and 2006 with 32 controls matched for gender, gestational age, birth weight, and corrected for small for gestational age (SGA) and parental socioeconomic status (SES). Intelligence, auditory-verbal memory, attention, response inhibition, visual perception, motor skills, visuomotor integration, problem behaviour and executive functioning were evaluated.

Longitudinal Growth and Neuropsychological Functioning at Age 7 in Moderate and Late Preterms.

Objective: To determine the association between longitudinal growth measures (height, weight, head circumference, and extent of catch-up growth) and neuropsychological functioning at 7 years in moderately and late preterm children.

Methods: This study was part of a prospective, community-based cohort study. Data on growth were obtained from records on routine assessments in well-child centers until age 4 years and in a research setting at 7 years.

The Effect of Maternal Antihypertensive Drugs on the Cerebral, Renal and Splanchnic Tissue Oxygen Extraction of Preterm Neonates.

Background: Drugs with antihypertensive action are frequently used in obstetrics for the treatment of preeclampsia (labetalol) and tocolysis (nifedipine) or for neuroprotection (MgSO4), and may affect the hemodynamics of preterm born neonates.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess whether maternal antihypertensive drugs affect multisite oxygenation levels of the neonate.

Methods: Eighty preterm neonates of ≤32 weeks of gestational age were monitored using near-infrared spectroscopy.

Functional outcome at school age of neonatal post-hemorrhagic ventricular dilatation.

Background: Specific knowledge about the functional outcome of preterm born children with post-hemorrhagic ventricular dilatation (PHVD) is lacking.

Objectives: To determine functional outcome at school age in children with post-hemorrhagic ventricular dilatation and to identify whether PHVD characteristics increased the risk for deficits.

Methods: Single-center case-control study.

Functional outcomes at age 7 years of moderate preterm and full term children born small for gestational age.

Objective: To compare functional outcomes of 7-year-old (school-age) children born small for gestational age (SGA; ie, a birth weight z score ≤ -1 SD), with appropriate for gestational age (AGA) peers, born moderately preterm or full term.

Study Design: Data were collected as part of the Longitudinal Preterm Outcome Project study, a community-based, prospective cohort study of 336 AGA and 42 SGA born children (median gestational age 35 weeks, range 31-41). Of the SGA children, 32 were moderately preterm, 10 were full term; of the AGA, these numbers were 216 and 120, respectively.

Associations between developmental trajectories of movement variety and visual attention in fullterm and preterm infants during the first six months postterm.

Background: During early infancy major developmental changes, both in the variety of body movements and in visual attention, help the infant to explore its surroundings. Both behaviours depend on a gradual shift from subcortical to cortical functioning.

Aims: First, to determine whether preterms reach mature levels of movement variety (the number of different movement patterns) and visual attention earlier than fullterms.

Cerebral oxygenation is associated with neurodevelopmental outcome of preterm children at age 2 to 3 years.

Aim: The aim of the study was to determine whether regional cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (r(c)SO2) and fractional tissue oxygen extraction (FTOE), using near-infrared spectroscopy, are associated with neurodevelopmental outcome of preterm infants.

Method: We measured rc SO2 on days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 15 after birth in 83 preterm infants (<32wks gestational age), and calculated FTOE=(SpO2 -r(c)SO2)/SpO2. Cognitive, motor, neurological, and behavioural outcomes were determined at 2 to 3 years using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (BSID-III), an age-specific neurological examination, and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) respectively.

Early visual attention in preterm and fullterm infants in relation to cognitive and motor outcomes at school age: an exploratory study.

Objective: Preterm infants are exposed to the visual environment earlier than fullterm infants, but whether early exposure affects later development is unclear. Our aim was to investigate whether the development of visual disengagement capacity during the first 6 months postterm was associated with cognitive and motor outcomes at school age, and whether associations differed between fullterms and low-risk preterms.

Method: Seventeen fullterms and ten low-risk preterms were tested in a gaze shifting task every 4 weeks until 6 months postterm.

Motor development in 3-month-old healthy term-born infants is associated with cognitive and behavioural outcomes at early school age.

Aim: To determine whether motor development at 3 months of age is associated with cognitive, motor, and behavioural outcomes in healthy children at early school age.

Method: In this cohort study, we included 74 term-born, healthy children (44 males, 30 females; median gestational age 40.1 wks, range 38.

Functional outcome at school age of preterm-born children treated with high-dose dexamethasone.

Background: Postnatal dexamethasone (DXM) treatment is associated with adverse motor outcome. It is largely unknown as to what extent functional outcome at school age is affected.

Aims: Our first aim was to determine motor, cognitive, and behavioural outcome at school age of preterm-born children treated with high-dose DXM for pulmonary problems.

Visuospatial and visuomotor deficits in preterm children: the involvement of cerebellar dysfunctioning.

One of the more consistent findings in follow-up studies of preterm children is a deficit in visuospatial and visuomotor skills. Impairment of the dorsal visual stream and basal ganglia damage have been hypothesized to underlie this deficit. However, given recent findings of impaired cerebellar development in preterm children without lesions to this structure, and the involvement of the cerebellum in visuospatial and visuomotor functioning, we argue the cerebellum should be included in models relating impaired development of brain networks to visuospatial and visuomotor deficits in this population.

Development of fine motor skills in preterm infants.

Fine motor skills are related to functioning in daily life and at school. We reviewed the status of knowledge, in preterm children, on the development of fine motor skills, the relation with gross motor skills, and risk factors for impaired fine motor skills. We searched the past 15 years in PubMed, using ['motor skills' or 'fine motor function' and 'preterm infant'] as the search string.

Volume expansion does not alter cerebral tissue oxygen extraction in preterm infants with clinical signs of poor perfusion.

Background: Preterm infants with signs of poor perfusion are often treated with volume expansion, although evidence regarding its effect on cerebral perfusion is lacking. Moreover, the effect is questionable in preterm infants with an adequate cerebrovascular autoregulation (CAR). A useful measure to assess perfusion is cerebral fractional tissue oxygen extraction (cFTOE).

Motor and cognitive outcome at school age of children with surgically treated intestinal obstructions in the neonatal period.

Background: The motor and cognitive outcome at school age of newborn children with surgically treated intestinal obstructions is unknown. Physiological stress and anesthesia may potentially be harmful in the period of early brain development in newborn infants.

Objective: To determine motor and cognitive outcome at school age in children with surgically treated intestinal obstructions as newborns, and to identify clinical risk factors for adverse outcome.

Functional outcome of very preterm-born and small-for-gestational-age children at school age.

Background: Our aim was to determine functional outcome of very preterm-born and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) children as compared with matched controls at school age.

Methods: We included 28 very preterm SGA children (GA <32 wk, birth weight (BW) <10th percentile), born in 2000-2001. We also included 28 very preterm but appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) children, matched for GA, gender, and birth year, as controls.

Functioning of 7-year-old children born at 32 to 35 weeks' gestational age.

Objective: To compare neuropsychological functions in moderately preterm (32-35 weeks' gestation) and full-term children at the age of 7 years and identify gender differences.

Methods: Community-based prospective cohort study of 248 moderately preterm children (138 boys) and 130 full-term children (58 boys). Neuropsychological tests included IQ, memory, attention, visual perception, motor skills, visuomotor skills, and parental report of executive functioning.

Visuospatial perception in children born preterm with no major neurological disorders.

Objective: Many investigations have found deficits in visuospatial perception in children born preterm, however, it is not clear whether the deficits are specific to visuospatial perception or the consequences of deficits in other functional areas, which often accompany preterm birth. This study investigated whether children born preterm show a specific deficit in visuospatial perception.

Method: Fifty-six 7- to 11-year-old preterm born children (gestational age <34 weeks) without cerebral palsy and 51 age-matched, full-term children completed four computerized tasks tapping different levels and types of visuospatial perception.

Functional impairments at school age of children with necrotizing enterocolitis or spontaneous intestinal perforation.

We aimed to determine motor, cognitive, and behavioral outcome at school age of children who had either necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) or spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP). This case-control study included infants with NEC Bell's stage IIA onward, infants with SIP, and matched controls (1996-2002). At school age, we assessed motor skills, intelligence, visual perception, visuomotor integration, verbal memory, attention, behavior, and executive functions.

Functional impairments at school age of preterm born children with late-onset sepsis.

Background: Late-onset sepsis is a relatively common complication particularly of preterm birth that affects approximately a quarter of very low birth weight infants.

Aim: We aimed to determine the motor, cognitive, and behavioural outcome at school age of preterm children with late-onset sepsis compared to matched controls.

Study Design And Subjects: A prospective case-control study that included preterm infants (gestational age<32weeks and/or birth weight<1500g) admitted to our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in 2000-2001 with a culture-proven late-onset sepsis, and controls matched for gestational age.