EFFECTS OF BIRTH-WEIGHT STATUS AND GESTATIONAL-AGE ON THE QUALITY OF GENERAL MOVEMENTS IN PRETERM NEWBORNS

It is hypothesised that individual differences in nervous system funct ioning, undetected by a neurological examination, are reflected in the quality of spontaneous movements of preterm newborns. Given this hypo thesis it is expected that a short pregnancy duration and IUGR will be related to an abnormal movement quality. These expectations were conf irmed in a group of 37 small-for-gestational-age and appropriate-for-g estational-age preterm newborns with gestational ages ranging from 27 to 34 weeks without serious perinatal complications and for whom no ov ert neurological abnormalities could be detected based on the evaluati on of elicited responses and tonus at the postmenstrual age of 35 week s. The quality of general movements was adversely affected by both IUG R and a pregnancy duration below 32 weeks. Newborns with an abnormal m ovement quality also had significantly lower obstetrical optimality sc ores. Previous research has shown these scores to be related to the ne urological condition of the newborn. We conclude that observations of movement quality, being neither intrusive nor time consuming, may cons titute a useful addition to the neurological assessment of preterm new borns without serious perinatal complications.