Personal Injury Attorneys & Lawyers

April 2, 2008 - Very premature birth may be an important risk factor for autism, but more studies to confirm the association, say the researchers.

One of the four very low birth weight babies - weighing less than 1 pound at birth, and no more than 3.3 kilograms - autism showed signs of behaviour in dealing with early childhood, in a study Published in the April issue of Pediatrics magazine.

Children who are now preschoolers, are subjected to further tests to determine whether the diagnostic criteria for autism and other diseases.

“The very low birth weight, the babies in our study showed a high prevalence of autism in the practices of early detection of” researchers of the study Catherine Limperopoulos, PhD, tells WebMD. “The next step to determine if what we see in this early detection is really autism.”
Prematurity and autism

Ninety-a very low birth weight, the children were under study, led by researchers at McGill University and Harvard Medical School.

Everyone was less than 3.3 kilograms at birth, gestational age of 23 weeks to 30 weeks.

Apart from the routine for the development of tests, the children were assessed on signs of autism at the age of 18 months and 24 months, to accept the tests for early detection.

Twenty-three out of 91 children (25%) had abnormal findings at a screening tool behavior associated with autism.

Boys were six times more often than girls, an anomaly in the number of testing and a reduction in gestational age and birth weight were also linked with abnormal opinion.

“The smallest and the baby kränkste appeared to be most at risk,” says Limperopoulos.

The biggest risk factor for a positive test was an inflammation, as a rule, from a bacterial infection occurs prior to or during the work, known as chorioamnionitis.

The condition has been associated with an increase of 16 times in a very low birth weight, the babies tested positive for the symptoms associated with autism.
Early Autism mandatory testing

Although the results did not establish a link between low birth weight and autism, they suggest a need for early detection and screening of babies born weighing less than 3.5 kilograms, said Limperopoulos .

“We are used to screen for babies of these delays and difficulties of the language engine,” she says. “Early Autism should also routine screening.”

She adds that it is not yet clear whether the conduct in regard to detection of autism be identified by permanently or temporarily.

“This can be an early detection of Asperger syndrome, but we simply can not say yet,” she says.

Case Western Reserve University researcher Maureen Hack, MD, has much of his career to studying the results very early and in the lower birth-weight babies.

She tells WebMD that for a long time, although very premature babies have an increased risk of delay and the poorest of the nervous system.

“The risk of a brain lesion, in the context of extreme prematurity is very high,” she says. “My bias is that this is nothing new. What they require little autism perhaps cognitive development.

She adds that several previous studies, it was found behaviour and cognitive problems, as in so many half of the children born in a very low birth weight.

“These kids should be tested very early to cognitive development, but I am not sure that the detection of autism added everything,” she says.