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Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Modeling Encephalopathy of Prematurity Using Prenatal Hypoxia-ischemia with Intra-amniotic Lipopolysaccharide in Rats
Published on: November 20, 2015
Prenatal antecedents of newborn neurological maturation
Janet A DiPietro1, Katie T Kivlighan, Kathleen A Costigan
1Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. jdipietr@jhsph.edu
Abstract:
Fetal neurobehavioral development was modeled longitudinally using data collected at weekly intervals from 24 to 38 weeks gestation in a sample of 112 healthy pregnancies. Predictive associations between 3 measures of fetal neurobehavioral functioning and their developmental trajectories to neurological maturation in the first weeks after birth were examined. Prenatal measures included fetal heart rate (FHR) variability, fetal movement, and coupling between fetal motor activity and heart rate patterning; neonatal outcomes include a standard neurologic examination (n = 97) and brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP; n = 47). Optimality in newborn motor activity and reflexes was predicted by fetal motor activity, FHR variability, and somatic-cardiac coupling predicted BAEP parameters. Maternal pregnancy-specific psychological stress was associated with accelerated neurologic maturation.
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