ITALIAN MULTICENTER STUDY ON VERY-LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT BABIES - NEONATAL-MORTALITY AND 2-YEAR OUTCOME

The Italian multicentre study on very low-birth-weight babies is the f irst collaborative project in Italy on the health status of newborns w eighing 500-1499 g at birth: 634 such babies were admitted in 1987-88 to eight Italian NICUs; 424 infants survived and were followed until t wo years of age, corrected for prematurity. Logistic regression analys is of pre-admission risk factors of in-hospital mortality identified e ight statistically significant variables: birth weight, gestational ag e, sex, antepartum steroids, 1-min Apgar score and, on admission to th e NICU, body temperature, pH and absence of spontaneous respiration. U sing the equation derived from the logistic model, a theoretical morta lity rate was calculated for each centre, predicted on the basis of th e local incidence of preadmission risk factors. In no case was the pre dicted mortality significantly different from the observed one. At two years of age, 8 children were blind and 48 had motor disability. Of t hese, 46 had cerebral palsy: based on a functional evaluation score 14 had severe (degree 4), 20 intermediate (degree 3) and 12 mild cerebra l palsy (degree 2). Among 25 variables entered in a logistic regressio n as risk factors for cerebral palsy, only periventricular leucomalaci a and acidosis were significantly associated with the outcome.