Late preterm infants contribute to significant neonatal intensive care unit health care resource utilization because of their sheer numbers. Determinants of the length of hospitalization (LOH) in this population are understudied. Gestational age (GA) is used most commonly as a predictor for LOH but there are many limitations including inaccurate dating and morbidities of prematurity which at least partly related to neurophysiological immaturity. The latter can be assessed by amplitude integrated electroencephalogram (aEEG, a simplified 5 lead EEG), and possibly by heart rate variability (HRV) and respiratory variability (RV). All 3 are non-invasive tests that can be done at the bedside. Our study hypothesis is to determine if neurophysiologic maturation as assessed by aEEG, HRV and RV within 24-96 hours following birth improves the correlation between gestational age and length of hospitalization compared to gestational age alone.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
26
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan, United States
Brown University - Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island NICU
Providence, Rhode Island, United States
McGill University Health Center
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Magnitude of variance, R square
linear regression model: LOH = intercept + b1GA + b2aEEG + b3HRV + b4RV + error term; b1 - b4 represents the weight of each variable to explain the variance of the equation (R2), GA is gestational age, aEEG is amplitude integrated EEG, HRV is heart rate variability, RV is respiratory variability, LOH is length of hospital stay
Time frame: 2 years
Amplitude integrated electroencephalogram (aEEG)
number of cycles/hour, the lower border voltage, the span voltage or the percent of the tracing which is discontinuous
Time frame: participants will be followed for the duration of hospital stay, an expected average of 5 weeks
Heart rate variability (HRV)
standard deviation of the R-R interval, sample asymmetry and sample entropy
Time frame: participants will be followed for the duration of hospital stay, an expected average of 5 weeks
Respiratory variability (RV)
instantaneous respiratory effort, phase between ribcage and abdomen, amplitude of the signal, pause metrics and movement artifact metrics
Time frame: participants will be followed for the duration of hospital stay, an expected average of 5 weeks
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