Fidgety Movements in Cystic Fibrosis

Very low birth weight infants who are at risk for chronic lung diseases may also be at risk for brain anomalies such as increased echogenicity, leukomalacia and intracranial hemorrhage. Infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia have been reported to have worse neurodevelopmental outcomes than healthy infants. It has also been pointed out that babies with prolonged and recurrent apneas during sleep may have weak General Movements (GMs) repertoire.

It has been mentioned that motor development retardation may also occur in neurodevelopmental diseases, genetic diseases and chronic lung diseases, as well as in cystic fibrosis. In infants with cystic fibrosis, motor development may be affected by increased incidence of hospitalization, previous infections, malnutrition, respiratory and digestive system disorders. There is no research done with GMs assessment to determine motor dysfunction in infants with cystic fibrosis and this topic is open to research.

Having more information about the motor development of babies by determining the motor characteristics and motor performance of infants with cystic fibrosis, it may be possible to start the disease-specific physiotherapy and rehabilitation programs as early as possible. For this reasons, in the study the investigators aimed to investigate the characteristics of GMs in the "Fidgety" period of 3-5 month term infants diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, to determine the motor performances and to investigate the relation between the GMs characteristics and the features of the disease.

The hypotheses the investigators have set for this study are listed below;

Ho: Spontaneous movements of the "Fidgety" period of infants diagnosed with 3-5 months of cystic fibrosis are not different from normal infants.

H1: Spontaneous movements of "Fidgety" period of infants diagnosed with cystic fibrosis between 3-5 months are different from normal infants.