Motor repertoire in 3- to 5- month-old infants with prenatal exposure to syphilis and toxoplasmosis.

Aim: To characterize the motor repertoire of 3- to 5-month-old infants who were prenatally exposed to the infectious agents of syphilis and toxoplasmosis.
Methods: Exploratory observational study that evaluated 15 exposed infants (34.4 ± 3.5 weeks gestation) recruited from a referral center. Age assessment ranged 12-20 (median 12) weeks post-term. General Movement Assessment, including the Motor Optimality Score-Revised (MOS-R), was used to assess the global quality of fidgety movements (FMs) and to quantify and detail coexisting motor patterns. Clinical variables were also collected. Later motor outcomes were obtained from medical reports when possible.
Results: MOS-R ranged 10-26 (median 24). There was a higher proportion of infants with normal (80.0 %) than aberrant FMs, but the proportion of infants with reduced MOS-R (80.0 %) was higher compared to optimal MOS-R. One infant with aberrant FMs was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Only 13.3 % of the infants showed smooth and fluent movement character. All observed tongue movements were abnormal.
Conclusion: Infants had predominantly normal FMs, but with reduced MOS-R and abnormalities in the coexisting motor repertoire.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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