Unique index at birth predicts disability at 4 years of age / Fetal Growth determines preschool performance

(Bochum) - RUB-Medics: "Growth retardation at birth is a prime predictor of poor developmental performance at preschool age."

Bochum's medics have discovered a unique method based on growth and vitality to detect babies at high-risk for infantile brain dysfunction that urgently need early intervention to improve school and educational success even without knowledge of brain imaging results. They prospectively screened over 5,000 newborns by cranial ultrasound and examined those with brain damage and the controls by testing intelligence (IQ), Maze test, and neurologic function at 4 years of age in a matched-pair design. The key result is that simple measurements at birth like weight, length, head circumference, body proportionality, and vitality at 10 minutes (Apgar) have a strong predictive capacity for preschool developmental performance and disability (pDDI).

"For us, this is a solid basis for early intervention strategies employing active rehabilitation and cell-based therapies that are currently being developed and most effective when given early. Due to the plasticity of the young brain, early onset individualized support by families, health care systems, and authorities involved in preschool and school education would maximize the benefit for the infants to lead a normal and productive life within society," says Prof. Dr. Arne Jensen of the Campus Clinic Gynecology at the Ruhr-University Bochum.

Together with his colleagues Prof. Dr. Gerhard Neuhäuser, and Dr. Kai-Ole Jensen, MD, he reports in the journal "Annals of Pediatrics" http://ots.de/6utrzB


An individual cell treatment of neonatal stroke led the way

In a recent publication on cell-based therapy of pediatric stroke & brain plasticity and a database search that revealed that head circumference at birth is highly predictive for brain damage in both growth retarded and large term-born infants, the significance of birth variables for prediction became clear. "We realised how important simple measurements at birth are to predict the infants future developmental trajectory because this enables us to orchestrate early intervention strategies that take full advantage of the plasticity of the brain when the babies are young", Prof. Arne Jensen recalls. "To account for medical care standards in rural areas and/or developing countries where cranial ultrasound may not be available, we then developed a Morphometric vitality index (MVI), based on growth and birth variables, only, to predict preschool psychomotor performance in individual children without knowledge of cranial ultrasound results."

Links:
Open Access original publication: J Stem Cell Res Transplant - Volume 6 Issue 1 - 2019
ISSN : 2381-9065 | http://www.campus-klinik-bochum.de/pdf/app-6-19.pdf
Open Access original publication: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ogi/2018/2120835/

Contact:
Prof. Dr. med. Arne Jensen, Ruhr-University Bochum, Campus
Clinic Gynecology, Universitätsstr. 140, 44799 Bochum, Germany
Telefon +49 234/588196-0
arne.jensen@ruhr-uni-bochum.de