Correlation of NICU anthropometry in extremely preterm infants with brain development and language scores at early school age

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Ting Ting Fu, University of Cincinnati; Maria E. Barnes-Davis, University of Cincinnati; Hisako Fujiwara, University of Cincinnati; Alonzo T. Folger, University of Cincinnati; Stephanie L. Merhar, University of Cincinnati; Darren S. Kadis, University of Toronto; Brenda Poindexter, Emory University; Nehal A. Parikh, University of Cincinnati
• Language: English
• Date: 2023-09-15
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2023, The Author(s)
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fs41598-023-42281-0
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Scientific Reports
• Volume: 13
• Start Page: 15273
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was funded by an award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (K12 HD028827 for MBD). MBD and TTF are also supported by Procter Scholar Awards from the Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation.
• Keywords: pediatrics; magnetic resonance imaging
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, General; Biology, Neuroscience

Abstract

Growth in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is associated with increased global and regional brain volumes at term, and increased postnatal linear growth is associated with higher language scores at age 2. It is unknown whether these relationships persist to school age or if an association between growth and cortical metrics exists. Using regression analyses, we investigated relationships between the growth of 42 children born extremely preterm (< 28 weeks gestation) from their NICU hospitalization, standardized neurodevelopmental/language assessments at 2 and 4–6 years, and multiple neuroimaging biomarkers obtained from T1-weighted images at 4–6 years. We found length at birth and 36 weeks post-menstrual age had positive associations with language scores at 2 years in multivariable linear regression. No growth metric correlated with 4–6 year assessments. Weight and head circumference at 36 weeks post-menstrual age positively correlated with total brain volume and negatively with global cortical thickness at 4–6 years of age. Head circumference relationships remained significant after adjusting for age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Right temporal cortical thickness was related to receptive language at 4–6 years in the multivariable model. Results suggest growth in the NICU may have lasting effects on brain development in extremely preterm children.