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Increased Skin-To-Skin Care is Associated with Larger Thalamic Volume on MRI at Term-Equivalent in Infants Born Very Preterm

Fox, Leah
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2953-4615
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1668619924267186

Abstract Details

2022, MS, University of Cincinnati, Medicine: Clinical and Translational Research.
Background: There are many benefits of skin-to-skin care for very preterm infants, but little is known regarding its effect on brain development. Our objective is to estimate the effects of skin-to-skin care on neurostructural development using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at term-equivalent age in very preterm infants. Methods: The Cincinnati Infant Neurodevelopment Early Prediction Study is an on-going, multicenter, geographically based, longitudinal birth cohort study, with recruitment from September 2016 to November 2019, and neurodevelopmental follow-up to 7 years corrected age. This is a convenience sample of 246 hospitalized very preterm infants born =32 weeks gestational age from five greater Cincinnati area level III/IV neonatal intensive care units. Patients with known chromosomal or congenital central nervous system anomalies or cyanotic heart disease were excluded. There were 395 initially eligible participants, of which 149 were excluded. The primary exposure of interest was number of skin-to-skin care encounters documented in the medical record during NICU admission but prior to brain MRI. Skin-to-skin care was normalized for length of stay. Our outcomes of interest were global brain abnormality score (composite measure of injury and brain immaturity), four measures of cortical maturation (cortical surface area, sulcal depth, gyrification index, and curvature), and relative thalamic volume. Results: From a total of 246 infants with well-documented skin-to-skin care data, 210 with good quality MRI images were included in the analysis. The mean (SD) gestational age was 29.40 (2.48) weeks, and 109 subjects (44%) were female. In propensity score-weighted analyses, skin-to-skin care was significantly associated with increased inner cortical curvature (ß 2.10; 95% CI: 0.18, 4.02; p=0.03) and larger relative thalamic volume (ß 0.16; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.29; p=0.02). We did not observe a significant association between skin-to-skin care and global brain abnormality score, surface area, sulcal depth, or gyrification index. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that skin-to-skin care is significantly associated with improved normalized volume of the thalamus at term-equivalent age. Since prematurity and frequent exposure to painful stimuli from invasive clinical interventions are known risk factors for delayed thalamocortical development, skin-to-skin care represents a potential neuroprotective strategy to preserve thalamic development.
Scott Langevin, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Nehal Parikh, D.O. (Committee Member)
Shelley Ehrlich, M.D. (Committee Member)
20 p.
Medicine
Neonatal neurology; Skin-to-skin Contact; Kangaroo Care; NICU follow-up; Infant Bonding; Neurodevelopmental outcomes

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Fox, L. (2022). Increased Skin-To-Skin Care is Associated with Larger Thalamic Volume on MRI at Term-Equivalent in Infants Born Very Preterm [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1668619924267186

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Fox, Leah. Increased Skin-To-Skin Care is Associated with Larger Thalamic Volume on MRI at Term-Equivalent in Infants Born Very Preterm. 2022. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1668619924267186.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Fox, Leah. "Increased Skin-To-Skin Care is Associated with Larger Thalamic Volume on MRI at Term-Equivalent in Infants Born Very Preterm." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1668619924267186

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1668619924267186
16
© 2022, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Increased Skin-To-Skin Care is Associated with Larger Thalamic Volume on MRI at Term-Equivalent in Infants Born Very Preterm by Leah Fox is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12