Brainstem auditory-evoked potentials of 8-year-old preterm children in relation to their psycholinguistic abilities and MRI findings.
BACKGROUND
Brainstem auditory potential (BAEP) has been used to demonstrate brainstem damage and to provide prognosis for the outcome for newborn children. There are contradictory results of its power to predict problems in language development or problems at school. It is well known that preterm children experience an excess of these problems.


OBJECTIVE
To study if BAEP findings of 8-year-old preterm children differ from those of the full-term born control children and whether there is correlation to their linguistic problems or to the findings in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).


METHODS
Population-based cohort study.


METHODS
Forty-two preterm children aged 8 years born with birth weight <1750 g and their matched full-term control children with birth weight >2500 g, 24 of whom had BAEP recordings and MRI.


METHODS
Differences in BAEPs between the preterm and the control children. Correlation of BAEPs with linguistic problems and with MRI findings.


RESULTS
No differences were found in the absolute latencies nor in the interpeak intervals and in the I/V amplitude ratio. Nor did the results differ even when cerebral palsy disabled preterm children, preterm children with mild neurodevelopmental dysfunction or healthy preterm children were compared to each other or to the control children. No correlation to the linguistic problems or to the findings of periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) in MRI or to the different measurements of the brainstem were found.


CONCLUSIONS
If hearing impairment does not exist, BAEP does not give further information on neurodevelopmental nor linguistic problems of the preterm children.
Olsén
Päivi
P
Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital of Oulu, PL 23, 90029, Oulu, Finland. paivi.olsen@oulu.fi
Yliherva
Anneli
A
Pääkkö
Eija
E
Järvelin
Marjo Riitta
MR
Tolonen
Uolevi
U
D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D002547:Cerebral Palsy; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D007804:Language Development; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007807:Language Tests; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*