Transient neurologic abnormalities and BAEPs in high-risk infants.
We examined brainstem auditory evoked potentials in 2 neurodevelopmentally different groups of high-risk premature infants during the first year of life. Our 77 patients were considered at birth to be at risk for neurologic disabilities, but were found to have normal development in the second year of life. The patients were divided into 2 groups on the basis of their neurologic findings during the first year of life; 24 of the 77 patients demonstrated transient neurologic abnormalities (group I) and the remaining 53 demonstrated normal neurologic findings through the first year of life (group II). Normative data of brainstem auditory evoked potentials were obtained from 60 low-risk and neurologically normal infants. Group I patients had prolonged III-V and I-V intervals at 2 months of age or younger and poorly detectable waves VI and VII at 5 months of age or younger, compared with control subjects. Wave VI was poorly detected in group II patients only at 35-39 weeks of conceptional age. Brainstem auditory evoked potentials suggested that the patients with transient neurologic abnormalities had transient dysfunction or maturational delay in the brainstem and upper auditory pathway early in the first year of life.
Kitamoto
I
I
Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Kukita
J
J
Kurokawa
T
T
Chen
Y J
YJ
Minami
T
T
Ueda
K
K
D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008297:Male; D009420:Nervous System / Q000254:growth & development / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012307:Risk Factors