INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENTS OF CHILDREN RECOVERED FROM ERYTHROBLASTOSIS FETALIS SINCE THE INTRODUCTION OF EXCHANGE TRANSFUSION

[摘要] A second group of 68 erythroblastotic infants and their unaffected siblings has been added to that previously published. These infants had their disease in the years 1947-51. Those thought to be severely ill (41) were treated with a single replacement transfusion. The others (27) were given small transfusions or no treatment.In contrast with the children treated prior to 1947 whose mean I.Q. (Stanford-Binet) was 11.8 lower than that of their unaffected siblings, the present group had a depression in I.Q. of only -6.13 (p = 0.01). The seeming improvement was probably not occasioned by the inclusion of mild cases that would have been missed in earlier years, since exclusion of mild cases to the extent of half the series leaves the remainder with less of a depression in I.Q. than was found in the earlier study. It is tempting to suppose that replacement transfusion protected the central nervous system, but statistical analysis shows that the improvement in outcome has a probability value of only 0.07; that is, there is 1 chance in 14 that the apparent improvement is not real.The degree of jaundice was found to be significantly related to the depression in I.Q. Analysis of the degree of anemia yielded equivocal results. The 11 children who were rated severely ill by both criteria of severe jaundice and severe anemia had an I.Q. which averaged 23.1 points below that of their siblings.Arthur and Merrill-Palmer total scores and hearing tests disclosed no deficiencies.

[学科分类] 儿科学