Neurological sequelae in high- and low-optimality obstetrics.

Neonatal neurological findings and the results of a neurological follow-up examination at 4 years of age were compared in two groups of subjects. The first group contained 39 children with an extremely low obstetrical optimality score, the second one contained 38 children with an extremely high obstetrical optimality score. More children were neurologically deviant in the first group than in the second one, both shortly after birth and at 4 years. The predictive power of the neonatal neurological examination was less in the low-optimality group, probably due to false-negative diagnoses in preterm infants.