A neurologic comparison of pre-term and full-term infants at term conceptional age

Abstract

There are currently no neurologic examinations designed for pre-term infants with sufficient data to determine neurologic deviance at various gestational or conceptional ages (gestational age plus age from birth). In this study a neurologic examination standardized for full-term newborn infants was administered to 97 full-term newborn infants was administered to 97 full-term newborn infants and 97 pre-term infants at their expected date of birth, 40 weeks' conceptional age. The pre-term infants had more weak responses than did the full-term infants despite being at a higher level of activity state throughout the examination. The pre-term infants also had more asymmetric responses. There was no correlation between gestational age and the incidence of weak responses in the pre-term infants, but the pre-term infants of lowest birth weight at all gestational ages had the greatest number of weak responses. The latter may be because pregnancy and neonatal problems contribute more to the neurologic findings than does the length of gestation.