Transitory neurological findings in a population of at risk infants.

Two-hundred fifty infants with high and no risk history transitory neurological findings (TNF) were examined during the first year of life. The neurological situation and the developmental progress were reconsidered in these children at 2.5-4.5 and 5-7 years of age. TNF were diagnosed mainly during the first two trimesters. Hyperirritability and asymmetries resolved to about 70% during the first half of the first year of life. In contrast, isolated central hypotonia resolved over a much longer period. No correlations of distinct types of TNF could be found with VLBW and LBW-infants, with fullterm infants, with birthweights, nor with risk factors. Children who developed spastic CP presented permanent hypertonia beside other specific neurological symptoms during the second half of the first year of life. Children with lasting non-spastic handicaps showed permanent hypotonia combined with other neurological abnormalities and symptoms of psychomotor retardation, which evolved also during the second half of the first year. From these results the question arises: which parts of TNF are essentially neurobiological findings indicating processes of transformation of the sensory motor system from non-intentional fetal to intentional motor behaviour of early infancy. TNF, then, should not longer be looked at as symptoms of pathological value only.