Objective: To study the relationship between the growth rate of the corpus callosum and neurological motor development in premature infants.
Methods: Fifty infants whose gestational ages were less than 34 weeks and who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit from March 2007 to August 2007 were enrolled. From 0 to 6 weeks of postnatal age, the sagittal midline cranial sonography via anterior fontanel was performed, once weekly. The length and the morphology of the corpus callosum were measured. The 52-neuromotor examinations were performed at 3 months of corrected gestational age.
Results: The mean length of the corpus callosum was 39.16 mm at birth. The mean growth rate of the corpus callosum during the first 6 weeks of life was 1.05 mm/week. Fourteen infants showed abnormal neuromotor development and 36 had normal-neuromotor function at 3 months of corrected gestational age. A decreased growth rate of the corpus callosum was observed in the abnormal nervimotion group between 2 and 3 weeks (0.68 mm/week vs 1.17 mm/week) and between 4 and 5 weeks (0.86 mm/week vs 1.12 mm/week) after birth compared with that in normal nervimotion group (p<0.05). The total growth rate of the corpus callosum from 2 to 6 weeks after birth in the abnormal nervimotion group was also lower than that in the normal nervimotion group (0.91 mm/week vs 1.15 mm/week; p<0.01).
Conclusions: A neuromotor delay at 3 months of corrected gestational age may be associated with the decreased growth rate of the corpus callosum between 2 and 6 weeks of life in premature infants.