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Updated: Aug 20, 2026
State of the Art Cranial Ultrasound Imaging in Neonates
Published on: February 2, 2015
Risk factors for adverse neurodevelopment in extremely low birth weight infants with normal neonatal cranial
Venkatesh Sampath1, Jennifer Bowen, Frances Gibson
1Department of Neonatal Medicine, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney.
Objectives:
To determine risk factors associated with adverse developmental outcome at 5 years in extremely low birth weight infants or extremely premature infants (<28 weeks) with normal neonatal cranial ultrasounds.
Design/Methods:
Data were collected prospectively on 152 infants with gestation <28 weeks or birth-weight <1000 g. Infants were grouped into those with normal development, mild-to-moderate impairment (IQ 70 to 84, or hearing loss 30 to 89 dB, visual acuity 6/18 to 6/60, or mild/moderate cerebral palsy (CP)) and severe impairment (IQ <70, hearing loss > or =90 dB, visual acuity <6/60, or severe CP).
Results:
Five-year outcomes were available for 144/152 children (95%). In all, 89 (62%) infants had normal development, 39 (27%) had mild-moderate impairment and 16 (11%) had severe impairment. On multivariate logistic regression analysis, factors associated with developmental impairment were serum bilirubin > or =200 micromol/l (odds ratio (OR) - 4.06, p=0.003) and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) (OR - 1.6, p=0.03).
Conclusions:
A serum bilirubin > or =200 micromol/l and presence of ROP are postnatal risk factors associated with an adverse developmental outcome in infants with normal cranial ultrasounds.
