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Early Spontaneous Movements and Postural Patterns in Infants With Extremely Low Birth Weight
Doğan Porsnok1, Gülsen Sırtbaş1, Bilge Nur Yardımcı-Lokmanoğlu1
1Faculty of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Developmental and Early Physiotherapy Unit, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.
Background:
Extremely-low-birth-weight (ELBW) infants are at high risk of morbidity, mortality, and long-term neurodevelopmental disorders. Evaluating infants' early spontaneous movements and postural patterns could facilitate the early detection of neurological dysfunction. This study aimed to analyze the results of global-and detailed-General Movements Assessment (GMA) in ELBW infants at a corrected age of three to five months and to compare with normal-birth-weight (NBW) infants.
Methods:
Fifty-two ELBW infants (median birth weight = 915.5 g) and 50 NBW infants were included. All infants were assessed according to GMA using Motor Optimality Score for 3- to 5-Month-Old Infants-Revised score sheet (MOS-R). In addition, later diagnoses of ELBW infants with atypical development were presented.
Results:
Fidgety movements were observed in 36 (69.2%) of ELBW infants and all NBW infants. MOS-R scores were lower in the ELBW group (median = 24) compared with the NBW group (median = 26). The ELBW infants scored lower than NBW infants in all MOS-R subcategories. Twenty-three (44.2%) of ELBW infants were diagnosed as atypical in the later period, although all control infants had normal development.
Conclusions:
The study indicated that ELBW might increase the risk of atypical development in infants. The MOS-R could help us to find the risk of atypical development in infants with ELBW.
