Background: Cranial ultrasound is a safe imaging modality that does not require sedation and can be performed bedside in preterm.
Objective: To evaluate the value of routine cranial ultrasound as a routine screening in preterm neonates.
Patients and methods: This was a prospective observational comparative study conducted on 50 preterm infants less than 37 weeks gestational age admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The cranial ultrasound (CUS) was done to all neonates in the first 4 to7 days of life & repeated at 10 to 14 days of life for detection of any cranial ultrasound abnormality and follow up for these abnormalities if present. They were divided into two groups: group I included cases with normal cranial ultrasound and group II included cases with abnormal cranial ultrasound.
Results: Intraventricular hemorrhage was the most abnormal CUS findings (26.3%); followed by periventricular leukomalacia (15.8%) then intra cerebral hemorrhage, hydrocephalous & holoprosencephaly (10.5%). There was significant decrease of hemoglobin levels, significant increase in prothrombin time (P≤0.001 for all), partial thromboplastin time (P- 0.003), international normalized ratio levels ( P-0.002) in neonates with abnormal CUS. There were significant increase in cases with apnea (P≤0.001), cyanosis (P- 0.017) and pallor (P-0.001) in cases with abnormal US.
Conclusions: Global routine cranial ultrasonography screening for all preterm neonates even if asymptomatic or not among at-risk population is highly valuable, cheap, and applicable tool investigation for detection of many neurological disorders like intraventricular hemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia and intracerebral hemorrhages.