Intrauterine growth retardation and its impact on postnatal development of extremely premature newborns
Abstract
Severe immaturity and intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) pose risk factors for inadequate postnatal adaptation. Chronic stress in prenatal period leads to metabolic and endocrine changes and accelerates maturation of several organ systems.
These changes might represent short term advantage for infant but in the later development may worsen the development of many diseases (respiratory distress syndrome, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, necrotizing enterocolitis and so on) Intrauterine metabolic changes may represent the basis for metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular morbidity in adulthood. Insulin-like growth factors (IGF-I, IGF-II and their binding proteins (IGFBPs) appear to be suitable monitoring system of metabolic changes in extremely low birth weight infants.