Concordance between Neurologic Screening Test and Neurologic Examination in newborns

[Correlation between neurological finding and gestational maturity of newborns determined by neurosonography]

INTRODUCTION

Maturity is a complex functional condition influenced especially by the development of the vital functions of a fetus, primarily by the degree of the development of its central nervous system. The aim of this investigation was to establish the gestational maturity of the nervous system by neurosonography and neurological status.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The parameter of the neurological maturity, compared in this research are a neurological status and the degree of girification established by the ultrasound.

RESULTS

All the coefficients of correlation between the gestation age determined by the ultrasound and the establishing of the gestation based on the neurological findings show a statistically significant correlation for p < 0.01. Of particular parametres of the neurological evaluation , the most appropriate ones appeared to be reflexes (the reflex of crossed extension, Moro reflex and the reflex of the main points), then volar flexion of a hand and the poplietal corner as the indicator of the passive tonus, whereas within the area of the evaluation of the active tonus, the motility was the most valid for establishing the maturity of a neonatal. The lowest coefficients of the correlations were in the automatic walk and the active tonus of the neck flexor, which are the ones of the most common neurological indicators of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy of a neonatal.

CONCLUSIONS

Bearing in mind that the premature babies are a risky group for existence of perinatal brain damages, we believe the neurosonographic establishing of the gestation age to be a precise and comfortable indicator of the maturity of the nervous system.