Role of general movement optimality scores in early assessment of premature infants with brain injury

Objective To investigate the role of general movement optimality scores (GMOS) in early assessment of premature infants with brain injury.

Methods Data of 175 premature infants who received cranial imaging and general movements (GMs) general evaluation were retrospectively analyzed, and were divided into brain injury group (n=92) and non-brain injury group (n=83)according to imaging data. According to gestational age, preterm infants were divided into <32 weeks group (n=66) and 32 to 36 weeks group (n=109). Basic conditions of the two groups were compared and difference of GMOS between them were analyzed. General data, GMs global assessment abnormal rate and GMOS score were compared between the two groups. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the efficacy of GMOS in early assessment of premature brain injury.

Results There were statistically significant differences in proportion of male and cesarean section proportion between the two groups (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in GMs assessment between the two groups (χ²=0.25, P=0.617). The GMOS of the non-brain injury group was 27.0 (25.0, 29.0) points, which was significantly higher than 24.5 (23.0, 27.0) points of the brain injury group (P < 0.001). In the <32 weeks group and 32 to 36 weeks group, the GMOS of the premature infants without brain injury was significantly higher than that of the premature infants with brain injury (P < 0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of GMOS for early assessment of premature brain injury was 0.680, the optimal threshold was 25.5 points, the sensitivity was 0.675, the specificity was 0.652, and the Yoden index was 0.327.

Conclusion GMOS is simple and feasible, and can be used as an evaluation method for premature brain injury.