Ophthalmic impairment at 7 years of age in children born very preterm.

Aims: To determine the prevalence of ophthalmic impairments in very preterm compared with term infants, the relation between impairments and cerebral ultrasound appearances and retinopathy, and the correlation with visual perception and motor and cognitive measures.

Subjects: 279 children at 7 years of age born before 32 weeks gestation within Liverpool during 1991-92 and attending mainstream schools, and 210 term controls.

Methods: Visual acuity was assessed by Snellen chart, and strabismus by the cover test.

Caudate and hippocampal volumes, intelligence, and motor impairment in 7-year-old children who were born preterm.

Children who survive very preterm birth without major disability have a high prevalence of learning difficulty, attention deficit, and minor motor impairment (MMI). To determine whether these difficulties are associated with structural brain abnormalities, we studied 105 preterm children (<32 wk) at 7 y with tests of IQ and MMI (Movement ABC) and detailed magnetic resonance brain scans. Scans were assessed qualitatively for visible cerebral lesions.

Magnetic resonance imaging and T2 relaxometry of cerebral white matter and hippocampus in children born preterm.

The objective of this study was to determine whether intelligence and minor motor impairments in children who are born preterm without major disability are associated with cerebral white matter (CWM) and hippocampal abnormalities on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A total of 103 preterm children were studied at age 7 y with detailed magnetic resonance brain scans, including a T2-mapping sequence from which T2 relaxation times of the CWM and hippocampal formations were calculated. All of the children had no major motor disability, attended normal school, and had undergone assessment of IQ and a test for minor motor impairment (MMI).

Growth impairment in the very preterm and cognitive and motor performance at 7 years.

Background: Infants born of low birth weight often have poor subsequent growth (especially if they were born very preterm), which has been shown to relate to later motor and cognitive development.

Aims: To assess a cohort of preterm infants at the age of 7 years for growth, motor, and cognitive measures, and investigate the effects of growth impairment on school performance.

Methods: A cohort of 280 children born before 32 completed weeks of gestation were tested, together with 210 term controls.

Motor, cognitive, and behavioural disorders in children born very preterm.

Children born preterm have been shown to exhibit poor motor function and behaviour that is associated with school failure in the presence of average intelligence. A geographically determined cohort of two-hundred and eighty preterm children (151 males, 129 females) born before 32 weeks' gestation and attending mainstream schools were examined at 7 to 8 years of age together with 210 (112 males, 98 females) age- and sex-matched control participants were tested for motor, cognitive, and behavioural problems. Tests applied were the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC), Clinical Observations of Motor and Postural Skills (COMPS), Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, and Connors' Teacher Rating Scale for attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).