Abstract
Previous follow-up surveys of low birth weight infants have shown increasing neurological and intellectual handicaps with decreasing birth weight: and there is a known correlation between head circumference and cellular growth of the brain in early life. Over one hundred surviving infants of birth weights 1500 g and less cared for at Hammersmith Hospital between 1961–1968 inclusive have been studied. Approximately one third had birth weights below the 10the percentile for their gestational age. At later follow-up, significantly more of these small ofr date children were found to have head circumferences below the 10th percentile than those whose birth weight was appropriate for gestation. In the years 1965–1968, fewer children of the latter group had head circumferences below the 10th percentile than in the years 1961–1964. The incidence of neurological abnormality among them was lower, and it is concluded that their brain growth may have been more satisfactory.
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Davies, P. 33. Later head circumference of infants weighing 1.500 g and less at birth. Pediatr Res 5, 89–90 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197102000-00038
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197102000-00038