Body movement patterns in normal and neurologically damaged newborns

Assessment of spontaneous body movements of newborns from video recordings is a diagnostic method that has not yet been introduced in Slovenia. Spontaneous move­ments of neurologically damaged newborns have been evaluated in order to determine if such movement distinguishes newborns at high risk for possible neurological impairment from healthy ones. The differences in movements between these two categories of newborns have been assessed and the frequencies of occurrence of different movement patterns determined. An attempt has been made to determine the objec­tivity of movement evaluations by comparing evaluations from two different observers, and determine the specificity and sensitivity of the method as judged by a neurological examina­tion performed at three months of age of the sub­jects that have been included in the study. In this way usefulness and reliability of the method, as reported by others, have been tested. First steps were performed in order to introduce the method into clinical practice. Body movements of six healthy and seven at risk newborns (those with one or more risk factors for neurological impairment) were recorded and then evaluated by one quantitative and two qualitative criteria. Spontaneous body movements of healthy new­borns were found to differ from those with pos­sible neurological dysfunction in both quality and frequency of occurrence of spontaneous motor activity measured within the unit of time. Recording and evaluation of spontaneous body movements of newborns is a simple, non-intrusive, reliable and cost-effective method for early detection of central nervous system dysfunction.