The role of risk factors in developmental diagnosis
Med Arh, 53 (3 Suppl 2):
5--8 (1999)Abstract
Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a chronic disorder of motion and postural balance caused by defect or damage of immature brain. Possibility of primary prevention of CP is not big, the most important is early diagnosis. 120 newborns admitted to the Developmental department of Pediatric Clinic as "child at risk" were investigated. The average gestational age was 37.18 weeks, average birth weight was 2820.09 g. In the group of prematurely born children CP has developed in 15 out of 50 children (30\%), in the group of term children it was present in 17 out of 57 children (29.83\%). 32 children (29.92\%) had birth weight below 2500 g. Among them there were 7 cases of CP (21.88\%). Children with birth weight of over 2500 g (75 children, 70.09\%) had CP in 25 cases (33.33\%). There was no statistically significant difference between boys and girls, and between healthy and children with CP. There was high rate of correlation between gestational age, birth weight and score of neonatal optimality, as well as score of pregnancy optimality, score of delivery optimality and neonatal optimality. The important correlation appeared between score of delivery optimality and score of neonatal optimality. There was high correlation between score of perinatal optimality and all three of its components. Diagnosis of "child at risk" made only on the basis of risk factors during pregnancy, delivery and neonatal period is out of discussion, it is not pointing out the developmental outcome. Evaluation by the methods of clinical examination is necessary for prediction of neurological development.