Delayed maturation of auditory-evoked responses in growth-restricted fetuses revealed by magnetoencephalographic recordings.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate fetal brain development of growth-restricted fetuses with auditory evoked responses (AER) that were recorded by the noninvasive magnetoencephalographic technique.


METHODS
Serial fetal recordings that started at 27 weeks of gestation were conducted on a fetal magnetoencephalographic device that was especially designed for obstetric assessment. Fifteen normotrophic fetuses were compared with 14 hypotrophic fetuses. After birth, 10 of the hypotrophic fetuses were diagnosed with asymmetric growth restriction; 4 fetuses were classified as symmetrically small for gestational age.


RESULTS
Fetal AER latencies in both groups showed an average developmental decrease of 12.74 msec/wk (P = .0035). Hypotrophic fetuses had longer age-adjusted latencies compared with normotrophic fetuses, with a difference of 73.5 msec (P = .034). The subgroup of symmetrically growth-restricted fetuses showed the longest latencies for age, with a difference from the normotrophic fetuses of 120.0 msec (P = .045).


CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that biomagnetically recorded AER can be used to monitor functional brain development in growth-restricted fetuses.
Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Isabelle
I
Kiefer
Eric
E
Siegel
Hubert
H
Preissl
Maureen
M
Ware
Burkhard
B
Schauf
Curtis
C
Lowery
Hari
H
Eswaran
D001921:Brain / Q000196:embryology*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D011247:Pregnancy