Validação e reprodutibilidade de uma escala para screening de triagem neurológica de recém-nascidos pré-termos não complicados ao atingir a idade termo

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the interrater reliability of the Saint-Anne Dargassies Scale in assessing the neurological patterns of health preterm newborns. Methods: Twenty preterm newborns met the inclusion criteria for participation in this prospective study. The neurologic examination was performed using the Saint-Anne Dargassies Scale following and having had normal serial cranial ultrasound. To test the reliability the study was structured as follows: group I (rater 1/physiotherapist; rater 2/neonatologist); group II (rater 3/physiotherapist; rater 4/child neurologist) and the gold standard. Results: High interrater agreement was observed between groups I – II compared with the gold standard in assessing postural pattern (p < 0.01). Regarding the assessment of primitive reflexes, greater agreement was observed in the evaluation of the palmar grasp reflex and the Moro reflex (p < 0.01) for group I compared with the gold standard. An analysis of tone demonstrated heterogeneous agreement, without compromising the reliability of the scale. The probability of equality between measurements of head circumference in the two groups compared with the gold standard was observed. Conclusion: The Saint-Anne Dargassies Scale demonstrated high reliability and homogeneity with significant power of reproducibility and may be to identify preterm newborns suspected of having neurological deficits.