title: Postnatal growth failure in preterm infants: ascertainment and relation to long-term outcome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Traditional measure of postnatal growth failure assessment has poor discriminatory power for long-term outcomes. Our objective was to identify measure of postnatal growth failure associated with long-term outcome in preterm infants born at < 28 weeks' gestation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four measures of defining postnatal growth failure at 36 weeks corrected gestational age: (1) weight < 10(th) centile, (2) weight < 3(rd) centile, (3) z score difference from birth > 1 and, (4) z score difference from birth > 2; were compared for their predictive values and strength of association with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes at 18-24 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Postnatal growth failure defined as a decrease in z score of > 2 between birth and 36 weeks corrected gestational age had the best predictive values compared to other postnatal growth failure measures, however, it was significantly associated with psychomotor developmental (P=0.006) but not with mental developmental indices (P=0.379).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Postnatal growth failure defined by z score change influenced psychomotor but not mental tasks in this cohort. This method of ascertainment could be useful to identify infants who might benefit from nutritional interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. pshah@mtsinai.on.ca
authors.forename: Prakesh S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Kit Y
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Merko
authors.forename: Roshine
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bishara
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Asztalos
authors.forename: Pauline B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Darling
mesh_terms: D005865:Gestational Age; D006130:Growth Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000254:growth & development*; D012189:Retrospective Studies