Abstracto

General movements and electroencephalogram as a predictive tool of highrisk neonatal neurodevelopmental outcome

Juntan Feng, Yiyan Ruan, Qi Cao, Yan Chen, Xiaozhu Liang

Background: To investigate the predictive value of General Movements (GMs) and Electroencephalogram (EEG) on high-risk neonatal neurodevelopmental outcome.

Methods: One hundred and ten high-risk new-borns were enrolled in this study. The qualitative general movements were assessed twice and EEG was examined one time within one month after birth. They were given neurological examination to determine whether they suffered from cerebral palsy at the correct age of 1 y old. A comparative analysis of the effect of GMsEEG and GMs+EEG was applied to predict high-risk neonatal neurodevelopmental outcome.

Results: Among the 110 high-risk cases, 38 cases showed abnormal GMs, 72 cases had normal GMs; Abnormal EEG was recorded in 29 cases, while 81 cases showed normal EEG. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of qualitative assessment of GMs for predicting high-risk neonatal neurodevelopmental outcome were 83.87%, 84.81%, 68.42% and 93.06% respectively. For EEG, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 70.97%, 91.14%, 75.86% and 88.89% respectively. For GMs+EEG, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 90.48%, 95.45%, 86.36% and 96.92%.

Conclusions: Both the qualitative assessment of GMs and EEG examination can be used to predict highrisk neonatal adverse neurodevelopmental outcome. Combining GMs with EEG examination is instrumental in improving the predictive effect on high-risk neonatal neurodevelopmental outcome.