Association between fat-soluble nutrient status and auditory and visual related potentials in newly diagnosed non-screened infants with cystic fibrosis: A case-control study

Abstract

Nutritional deficiencies often precede the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (CF) in infants, and occur at a stage where the rapidly developing brain is more vulnerable to insult. We aim to compare fat-soluble nutrient status of newly diagnosed non-screened infants with CF to that of healthy infants, and explore the association with neurodevelopment evaluated by electroencephalography (EEG). Our results show that CF infants had lower levels of all fat-soluble vitamins and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) compared to controls. The auditory evoked potential responses were higher in CF compared to controls whereas the visual components did not differ between groups. DHA levels were correlated with auditory evoked potential responses. Although resting state frequency power was similar between groups, we observed a negative correlation between DHA levels and low frequencies. This study emphasizes the need for long-term neurodevelopmental follow-up of CF infants and pursuing intervention strategies in the future.

Keywords: Auditory evoked potentials; Cystic fibrosis; Docosahexaenoic acid; Electroencephalography; Infants; Visual evoked potentials.