Deficits in Early Infancy May Point to Autism

Aug. 8, 2010— -- Certain developmental characteristics seen as early as 1 month of age in infants who need care in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) may help predict a later diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), researchers found.

A study of more than 2,100 newborns requiring a NICU stay found that those infants later diagnosed with an ASD were more likely to have persistent neurobehavioral abnormalities observed at 1 month, according to Bernard Karmel of the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities in Staten Island, N.Y. and colleagues.

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These infants were also more likely to have a characteristic known as asymmetric visual tracking, as well as abnormal upper extremity tone, seen at 1 month compared with matched controls without ASD, the researchers reported in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Additional deficits among infants who would subsequently receive an ASD diagnosis were also identified with testing through age 2.

"These patterns, although not in the social domain, have features that are consistent with behaviors that are associated with ASD in older children, leading us to speculate that they may be precursors to ASD, if not other developmental disorders," the researchers wrote.

The study does not confirm that the patterns observed are diagnostic for ASD, or would allow for earlier intervention in children with ASD, the researchers stressed.

Karmel and his colleagues proposed, however, "that the association of the behaviors described here with ASD in a medically compromised cohort might establish a group of infants to study prospectively to identify precursors to ASD, along with the more established strategy of study designs involving infant siblings of children with ASD."

Previous studies have found that rates of ASD are higher among children who required a stay in the NICU.