29507
Visual Scanning Preferences of Low-Birth-Weight Preterm
Objectives: to evaluate time fixation in social and non-social figures and percentage of preterm that looked to the images.
Methods: cross-sectional study, with 31 preterm, eye gaze evaluated at 6 months of corrected age.Inclusion criteria: toddlers of six months of corrected age, of both sexs, born before 37 weeks of gestation and birth-weight equal or below 20000g, followed up at a multidisciplinary outpatient clinic for preterm infants.Exclusion criteria: genetic syndrome and/or presence of a major motor, visual or hearing deficiency, according to the diagnosis recorded in the children's histories by the multiprofessional team that accompanied the children after their discharge from the neonatal unit. Preterm were evaluated with eye-tracking Mirametrix S2 Eye Tracker (version 2.0.0.057, Mirametrix Research Inc., 2011) with Mirametrix Viewer software (made in Canada) and 17 inches monitor. Six boards with social and non-social figures were projected in a screen computer each one for 5 seconds, successively, evaluating time and percentage of preterm that looked to each board. Socioeconomic data, clinical evolution during the hospitalization period in the neonatal intensive care unit and perinatal clinical data were collected from the charts .M-CHAT questionnaire was answered at 18 months of corrected age by the sample. This study complies with the guiding policies and principles for experimental procedures endorsed by the National Institutes of Health.
Results: The study sample was composed of 31 preterm with birth-weight equal to or below 2000g, 12 (38.7%) male. The mean gestational age at birth was 30.7 ± 2.7 weeks (24 to 35 weeks), the mean birth weight was 1362 ± 363 g (655 to 2000 g), Mother’s age at birth was 28.2 ± 6.0 years and 73.9% belonged to socioeconomic class C (average income between U$500 and U$2000). None of the preterm had siblings with ASD diagnosis. Preterm showed bigger visual fixation time in social figures, if compared to non-social ones, regardless to the social figure position in the board. Similar percentage of preterm looked either to social or non-social figures, to social figures with direct or indirect look, and to the eyes or mouth of the social figure. No preterm was screened positively with M-CHAT
Conclusions: At 6 months of corrected age, preterm show capacity of eye gaze in eye-tracking test, preferring social figures, suggesting that this tool can be useful as another screening ASD instrument.