ABSTRACT
Three hundred-forty-eight out of a regional population of 1272 newborn infants were randomly chosen and followed neurologically until age of two years to study the epidemiology of neurodevelopmental disorders, and to reveal the main factors influencing outcome. The most frequent neonatal pathologies were low Apgar scores - 45 (3.5%), neonatal sepsis - 28 (2.2%), neonatal seizures - 26 (2.0%), neonatal sepsis complicated with bacterial meningitis - 13 (1.0%), traumatic injury of peripheral nerves - 7 (0.6%), intracranial hemorrhages - 4 (0.3%) and CNS malformations - 3 (0.2%). At the age of 24 months abnormal development was identified in 29 cases (8.5%) of children, comprising global developmental delay in five (1.5%), unclassified motor problems (hypotonia without ataxia) in four (1.2%), cerebral palsy in three (0.9%), behavioral/sleep disorders in 12 (3.5%) and epilepsy in five (1.5%). The most significant single risk factors for abnormal neurodevelopmental outcome were maternal age, chorioamnionitis, gestational age <37 weeks, pathological delivery, and a low (<5) Apgar score at 5min after birth. Coexistence of several risk factors increased the probability of an adverse outcome.
