Predictive role of early milestones-related psychomotor profiles and long-term neurodevelopmental pitfalls in preterm infants

Gender affects early psychomotor milestones and long‐term neurodevelopment of preterm infants

“…Our time‐related evaluation of pointing may be consistent with a faster maturation of social skills in girls that was persistently observed in the long‐term GMDS assessment by personal–social subscale where females showed better outcomes in activities of daily living, level of independence, and social interaction. In our previous work, visual skills resulted to be slowly achieved in PT infants up to the older ranges of GA (Di Rosa et al, ). Early gender‐related differences on these skills did not emerge in this work by using either chronological age or CA.…”

“…Several qualitative neonatal white matter abnormalities may account for different degrees of neurobehavioral impairment on long-term observation, mainly not only in very PT but also in FT infants (Li et al, 2009;Spittle et al, 2011;Volpe 2009). In previous works, we showed the relationship between white matter abnormalities detected by cUSs and GA and the effect on both short-and long-term neurodevelopment played by white matter pattern of maturation (Di Rosa et al, 2016;Marseglia et al, 2015). Qualitative white matter abnormalities could result in widespread brain dysmaturation and were previously related to male gender by BRIEF REPORT 7 of 9 neuroimaging studies (Dean III et al, 2017).…”

“…On the basis of GA, children were divided into three groups, respectively, Group 1 between 32 and 33 weeks (mean GA 32.5), Group 2 between 34 and 36 weeks (mean 34.9), and Group 3 ≥37 weeks (mean 38.8 GA, range 37–42; Vohr, ). Long‐term evaluation was performed in all children using Griffiths Mental Development Scale—Revised (GMDS 2–8; Section III frame [25–36 months] between the age of 30 to 36 months [chronological age], mean 33.7; Di Rosa et al, ).…”

“…The ball should be moved slowly to the left or to the right, and the baby is supposed to follow it (Haataja et al, 1999;Dubowitz & Dubowitz, n.d.). On the basis of GA, children were divided into three groups, respectively, Group 1 between 32 and 33 weeks (mean GA 32.5), Group 2 between 34 and 36 weeks (mean 34.9), and Group 3 ≥37 weeks (mean 38.8 GA, range 37-42; Vohr, 2013 Rosa et al, 2016).…”

Early Psychomotor Advantage in Moderately Preterm Twins Born between 32 and 33 Weeks

“…The social interaction with the cotwin is demonstrated since the 14th week of gestation. 15 In previous studies, we identified the differences between early developmental trajectories by a time-related milestonesbased evaluation in groups of PT children categorized by ranges of GA, 16 and gender-related differences. 17 Based on the same study population, we investigated the influence of gemellarity on the developmental trajectories of PT twins compared with singletons using the same method.…”