Neonatal intensive care unit phthalate exposure and preterm infant neurobehavioral performance.

ABSTRACT: Every year in the United States, more than 300,000 infants are admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICU) where they are exposed to a chemical-intensive hospital environment during a developmentally vulnerable period. The neurodevelopmental impact of environmental exposure to phthalates during the NICU stay is unknown. As phthalate exposure during the third trimester developmental window has been implicated in neurobehavioral deficits in term-born children that are strikingly similar to a phenotype of neurobehavioral morbidity common among children born premature, the role of early-life phthalate exposure on the neurodevelopmental trajectory of premature infants may be clinically important. In this study, premature newborns with birth weight <1500g were recruited to participate in a

SUBMITTER: Stroustrup A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5837295 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature