Abstract
Prenatal glucocorticoid therapy (Gluc-Rx) accelerates lung maturation, reduces neonatal mortality and decreases the incidence of severity of RDS in preterm infants. Long-term neurological and developmental follow-up has shown no abnormalities in LEW infants (≥ 1900 g). We report the long-term outcome of Gluc-Rx in 96 VLBW infants studied at preschool (5 yr, n = 52) or school age (7 yr, n = 44). We found no difference between Gluc-Rx and unRx infants in growth or incidence of height, weight or head circumference < 5th percentile.
(Developmental scores are median scores on McCarthy GCI for pre-school and WISC-R, IQ for school age children.)
Outborn infants were more likely to have some degree of mild or significant neurodevelopmental abnormalities than inborn infants (37% vs 19% and 15% vs 6%, respectively). Prenatal glucocorticoid therapy had no deleterious effects on long-term growth or neurodevelopmental outcome in VLBW infants.
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Ballard, R., Leonard, C., Piecuch, R. et al. 1330 LONG-TERM OUTCOME AFTER PRENATAL GLUCOCORTICOID THERAPY IN VERY-LOW-BIRTHWEIGHT (VLBW) INFANTS. Pediatr Res 19, 332 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198504000-01354
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198504000-01354