Cardiorespiratory events in extremely low birth weight infants: neurodevelopmental outcome at 1 and 2 years.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association between cardiorespiratory events (CRE) and neurodevelopmental (ND) outcome at 8 and 20 months corrected age (CA) in a contemporary extremely low birth weight (ELBW )cohort.

STUDY

DESIGN

Retrospective chart review of 98 ELBW infants born in 2009 to 2010 who completed ND assessments at 8 and 20 months CA. Neonatal, sociodemographic, CRE and ND data were collected. ND outcome measures included neurologic examination and results from the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-III. Multiple regression analyses adjusted for the impact of neonatal risk factors on ND outcome.

RESULT: After adjusting for neonatal and social variables, greater frequency of CRE was related to worse language scores at 8 months, while CRE of greater severity were related to worse language at 20 months CA.

CONCLUSION

CRE in ELBW infants have impact on language development in the first two years of life.