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EFFECT OF INTRAUTERINE NUTRITIONAL DEPRIVATION ON NEUROMOTOR BEHAVIOUR OF THE NEWBORN
Author(s) -
BHATIA V. P.,
KATIYAR G. P.,
AGARWAL K. N.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
acta paediatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1979.tb05055.x
Subject(s) - medicine , hypertonia , muscle tone , low birth weight , birth weight , pediatrics , growth retardation , gross motor skill , physiology , obstetrics , motor skill , pregnancy , anesthesia , physical medicine and rehabilitation , psychiatry , biology , genetics
. The neurological maturation in 25 newborn babies born to severely undernourished mothers was studied by evaluating muscle tone and excitability status. These mothers had weight below the 25th percentile expected for height, haemoglobin less than 80.0 g/l and serum albumin less than 25.0 g/l. Twenty‐three babies born to healthy mothers were studied as control. The babies of undernourished mothers demonstrated gross intrauterine growth retardation. There occurred parallel reduction in placental weight and its protein content. The neuromotor behaviour of these newborns showed significant alteration in the performance of most reflexes, resembling normal motor behaviour of preterm infants. As many as 72% newborns could be classified as hypotonic and 56% hypoexcitable. However, no newborn demonstrated hypertonia or hyperexcitability. The parameters of neuromotor assessment were found to have no correlation with the birth weight in both undernourished as well as control groups. These observations suggest that muscle tone and excitability are better indices of maturation of central nervous system than the birth weight. It seems that the neurological evaluation becomes unreliable in babies who suffer from intrauterine nutritional deprivation.