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Prematurity alters skin conductance and behavioural scoring after acute stress in term-equivalent age infants

Amelie Maillard1, Elodie Garnier1, Elie Saliba1,2

  • 1Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, CHRU de Tours, Tours, France.

Acta Paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992)
|March 10, 2019
PubMed

Insights

Preterm infants show altered skin conductance and behavioral responses to stress at term-equivalent age. Skin conductance monitoring offers a reliable method for detecting neonatal discomfort in both preterm and full-term infants.

Area of Science:

  • Neonatal physiology
  • Developmental neuroscience
  • Pain assessment

Background:

  • Prematurity impacts neonatal development and stress responses.
  • Assessing neonatal discomfort is crucial for clinical care.
  • Skin conductance is a potential biomarker for physiological arousal.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the effect of prematurity on skin conductance and behavioral responses to acute stress at term-equivalent age.
  • To determine the reliability of skin conductance in detecting neonatal discomfort in preterm and full-term infants.

Main Methods:

  • A comparative study involving very preterm infants and healthy full-term neonates (34 per group).
  • Infants underwent the hip dysplasia screening test, a standardized acute stressor.
  • Skin conductance and the Acute Pain in Newborn (APN) scale were measured before and after the stimulus.

Main Results:

  • Preterm infants exhibited lower APN scores post-intervention compared to term infants (p=0.03).
  • Basal skin conductance (peaks-per-second) was lower in preterm infants but showed similar stress-induced increases.
  • Skin conductance correlated significantly with APN scores in both groups, indicating its sensitivity to pain.

Conclusions:

  • Preterm birth alters neonatal skin conductance and behavioral stress responses at term-equivalent age.
  • Skin conductance measurement shows promise as an objective tool for continuous monitoring of acute neonatal stress.
  • This finding supports the use of skin conductance for assessing pain and discomfort in neonates.
Abstract

Keywords:
Behavioural scaleNewborn infantPrematuritySkin conductanceStress

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