Follow-up study of neurodevelopment in 2-year-old infants who had suffered from neonatal hypoglycemia

Abstract

Abstract Background Neonatal hypoglycemia is tightly related to adverse neurodevelopmental and brain injury outcomes. Methods A total of 195 infants who were born from diabetic mothers with a low blood glucose level ( 24 h after birth). A total of 144 infants whose mothers had no high risk for gestational diabetes mellitus were followed up as the control group during the same period. The neurodevelopment of the infants was evaluated by the Gesell scoring method. Results The adaptability in the A2 and A3 subgroups was significantly lower than that in the control group (73.9 ± 6.6 vs. 87.9 ± 11.2; 71.5 ± 8.9 vs. 87.9 ± 11.2, respectively). There were significantly more mothers who used insulin during the perinatal period in A3 than in A1 and A2 (31% vs. 2%; 31% vs. 7.9%, respectively). The mothers of babies in subgroups A2 and A3 gained more weight than those of the control group (15.3 ± 1.9 kg vs. 11.1 ± 2.2 kg; 14.8 ± 2.6 kg vs. 11.1 ± 2.2 kg, respectively). Conclusions Long and repeated neonatal hypoglycemia caused poor adaptability. The babies of mothers who used insulin or had a high weight gain during pregnancy were associated with severe or persistent neonatal hypoglycemia.

Keywords

• Neonate
• Hypoglycemia
• Neurodevelopment
• Follow-up