Neurodevelopment Outcome in Children with Fetal Growth Restriction at Six Years of Age: A Retrospective Cohort Study

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 19; no. 17; p. 11043
• Main Authors: Benítez Marín, María José, Blanco Elena, Juan Antonio, Marín Clavijo, Jesús, Jiménez López, Jesús, Lubián López, Daniel María, González Mesa, Ernesto
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 03.09.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Animal cognition; Behavior; Birth Weight; Child; Child, Preschool; Children; Cognition; Cognitive development; Cohort analysis; Communication skills; Delay; Female; Fetal Growth Retardation - epidemiology; Fetuses; Gestational Age; Hemodynamics; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Infant, Small for Gestational Age; Mean; Motor skill; Neonates; Neurodevelopment; Preeclampsia; Pregnancy; Premature babies; Quotients; Retrospective Studies; Sociodemographics; Socioeconomics; Ultrasonography, Prenatal; Umbilical Arteries - diagnostic imaging; motor development; cognition; fetal growth restriction; neurodevelopment; development delay; communicative development; brain sparing
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191711043

This study aimed to describe neurodevelopment in fetal growth restriction children at the age of six. Secondly, we tried to demonstrate influencing factors that can improve or exacerbate this development, as well as predictive factors that might select a population at risk to assist with early childhood support. It was a study of 70 children affected with FGR. FGR was based on these definitions: birth weight below the 3rd percentile or birth weight below the 10th percentile with an abnormal hemodynamic Doppler study. Neurodevelopment was assessed at 6 years old by means of Batelle Development Inventory. A global development quotient under a 100 score was considered a neurodevelopment delay. All variables regarding pregnancy care, delivery episode, postpartum, neonatal care, sociodemographic issues, and the need for support in the first years were studied. The mean gestational age at diagnosis was 33.14 weeks (standard deviation (SD = 4.31), with 32.9% of early-onset diagnoses. The mean gestational age at delivery was 35.61 (SD = 3.21), and the cesarean rate was 64.3%. The average age of the children at the moment of the evaluation was 76.20-month-old (SD = 3.70). The mean global development quotient was 97.28 (SD = 13.97). We were able to record a 57.1% of global development delay. In the cases of cognition, only 17.1% of the children registered a delay. Motor and communication skills were the most frequently affected. We discovered that socioeconomic status was positively related to the global development quotient, as well as both gestational age at delivery and middle cerebral artery pulsatility index was positively related to the global development quotient. We found a higher neurodevelopment delay rate (57.1%). We could relate a higher gestational age at delivery and a higher MCA percentile with better global neurodevelopment quotients.