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Neuropediatrics 1990; 21(1): 11-17
DOI: 10.1055/s-2008-1071450
Original article

© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Prediction of Subsequent Motor and Mental Retardation in Newborn Infants Exposed to Alcohol in Utero by Computerized EEG Analysis

S.  loffe , V.  Chernick
  • Perinatal Physiology Laboratory, Department of Pediatrics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
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Publication History

Publication Date:
19 March 2008 (online)

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Abstract

In a prospective, blinded study 38 infants of mothers with varying quantities of alcohol ingestion during pregnancy had an EEG at 40 weeks post conceptional age. Bayley Development Tests were administered between 1.5 and 10 months of age. The total power of the EEG during REM sleep was inversely related to subsequent motor development (r = -0.51, F = 13.1, p < 0.0008) whereas the total power of the EEG during quiet sleep was inversely related to subsequent mental development (r = 0.61, F = 24.4, p < 0.0001). In alcohol exposed babies EEG abnormalities were present even in the absence of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). In 16 older children born to abstainers or alcoholic mothers similar results were obtained. Thus, the power of the EEG during REM and quiet sleep at birth appears to be a sensitive index of alcohol effects on the fetal brain and may be used to predict future motor and mental development.

Key words

Fetal alcohol syndrome - EEG power at birth - REM and quiet sleep at birth - Alcohol effects on the fetus - Fetal alcohol exposure and subsequent development