Neurological Sequelae of Prenatal and Perinatal Complications

Abstract

A group of 1,378 full-term newborn infants born in the Obstetric Department of the University of Groningen were subjected to a standardized quantitative neurological examination in their first 10 days of life. Data on pregnancy, delivery, and condition of the infant at birth were available. Sinct previous correlation analysis of neurological results with obstetric complications failed to give instructive results a new approach was carried out. Forty-two variables of the prenatal and perinatal history were analysed and counted if they deviated from optimal condition, giving an obstetric risk score for each baby. The distributions of response intensities of many neurological items were shown to be different in the low, middle, and high risk groups. This held true also for some syndromes. The number of optimal neurological responses was negatively correlated with the number of nonoptimal obstetric conditions. It was shown that non-optimal conditions tended to occur in association with each other. The more a condition deviated from the norm, the greater the number of other non-optimal conditions associated with it. A simple count of the number of such non-optimal conditions present offers promise as a means of identifying those babies at risk of neurological damage. It is suggested that the criteria for assessing what is an abnormal neurological response may be refined by reference to the responses of our low and high risk groups. © 1967, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.