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Updated: May 11, 2026
Preterm EEG: A Multimodal Neurophysiological Protocol
Published on: February 18, 2012
Amplitude-integrated electroencephalography showed no differences in cerebral activity between preterm singletons and
Christina Schreiner1, Anna Staudt1, Ursula Kiechl-Kohlendorfer1
1Department of Pediatrics II (Neonatology), Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
Aim:
Genetic influences on cerebral activity have been described previously, but data are scarce in preterms. We aimed to investigate whether a genetic influence causes amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) signals to differ between singletons and twin preterm newborns.
Methods:
This was a retrospective single-centre study conducted at Innsbruck Medical University Hospital, Austria. Preterm infants born before 32 weeks of gestation between 6 November 2010 and 6 December 2022 were eligible for the study. The aEEG was analysed for the total maturation score, its component scores and the number of sleep-wake cycles per hour.
Results:
We enrolled 240 preterm twin infants (57.5% male) with a mean gestational age of 30 (range: 24-32) weeks and a mean birth weight of 1324 (range: 600-2116) grams. We compared 240 singleton matched preterms. No differences were found between preterm singletons and twin preterm infants regarding the total maturation and component scores, or the number of sleep-wake cycles. aEEG showed no difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twins.
Conclusion:
Compared to singletons, twin infants born preterm showed no differences in aEEG signals in the first 4 weeks of life. Future studies should include more complex non-invasive functional neuroimaging methods to gain more insight into this important topic.
