Predictive Value of Fidgety Movement Assessment and Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Cerebral Palsy in Infants.

BACKGROUND: The early prediction of cerebral palsy (CP) could enable the follow-up of high-risk infants during the neuroplasticity period. This study aimed to explore the predictive value of fidgety movement assessment (FMA) and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the development of CP in clinic rehabilitation setting. METHODS: This retrospective observational study included infants who underwent FMA and brain MRI at age nine to 20 weeks at Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, between March 2018 and September 2019. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of FMA and MRI for predicting the development of CP were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 258 infants (169 males, gestational age 37.4 ± 3.0 weeks, birth weight 2987.9 ± 757.1 g) were included. Fifteen children had CP after age two years. The diagnostic value of FMA and brain MRI combination showed 86.7% sensitivity (95% confidence interval [CI]: 58.4% to 97.7%), 98.4% specificity (95% CI: 95.6% to 99.5%), and 97.7% accuracy (95% CI: 95.0% to 99.1%); the combination diagnostic value also showed a significantly higher AUC for predicting CP after age two years than FMA alone (AUC: 0.981 vs 0.893, P = 0.013). CONCLUSIONS: The diagnostic value of FMA and brain MRI combination during infancy showed a high predictive value for CP development in clinical rehabilitation setting.

Use of the Griffiths mental development scale-Chinese in the assessment of children with autism spectrum disorder and global developmental delay/intellectual disability.

ABSTRACT: The Griffiths Mental Development Scale-Chinese (GDS-C) is used in China to assess the development of children from birth to 8 years of age. Language disorders are a common symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and global developmental delay (GDD)/intellectual disability (ID). There is a need to identify distinct clinical characteristics in children suspected of having these 2 disorders, mainly presenting as language disorders. Here, we aimed to use the GDS-C to evaluate children presenting with language problems to identify characteristics that distinguish ASD and GDD/ID. Children with language problems were recruited between August 2018 and December 2019. A total of 150 children aged 25 to 95.2 months were enrolled (50 in the ASD group, 50 in the GDD/ID group, and 50 in the typical group). Each group was subdivided by age as follows: 24-36 months, >36-60 months, and >60-96 months. Developmental characteristics assessed using the GDS-C were analyzed and compared. Both, children with ASD and GDD/ID presented with a lower developmental level than typical children in all six subscales of the GDS-C. No significant differences were observed in the six subscale scores between the ASD and GDD/ID groups, except for the practical reasoning subscale score in the >36 to 60 months subgroups, which was significantly lower in the GDD/ID group than in the ASD group. The developmental imbalance of subscales within the ASD and GDD/ID groups identified troughs in the personal-social, language, and practical reasoning areas in children with ASD and in the language and practical reasoning areas in children with GDD/ID relative to typical children. The GDS-C is a useful, comprehensive tool for the assessment of the developmental state of children with ASD and GDD/ID. Characteristics of practical reasoning subscale help diagnose autism in >36 to 60 months old children.

Attentional Blink Effects on S-Cone Stimuli.

This study aimed to compare attentional blink (AB) effects on S-cone and on luminance stimuli. Recent research had revealed considerable AB effects not only on high-order visual areas but also on low-order visual areas. Therefore, whether AB formation occurred or not at primary visual cortex must be examined. Previous studies had reported the absence of attention modulation in an early koniocellular pathway driven by S-cone stimuli; therefore, the AB effects on S-cone stimuli would be a strong piece of evidence for late-stage hypothesis at least in the koniocellular pathway. For this study, 12 participants were instructed to identify a centrally presented target (T1) only or to identify either T1 or a peripheral target (T2). The targets were either luminance or S-cone stimuli. As expected, comparable AB effects on S-cone and luminance stimuli were observed. Findings suggested that AB formation through a koniocellular pathway must occur at a later cortical processing stage.