Sound spectrographic cry analysis in neonatal diagnostics. An evaluative study

Cry analysis in infants with Rh haemolytic disease

“…The crying of hypoglycaemic infants seems to resemble that of infants with central nervous system involvement. The fundamental frequency has been observed to be high, almost three times as high as in healthy infants and abnormal melody forms, vibrato and biphonation seem to occur frequently and the last-mentioned often in an unusual configuration (88,182,213,214). Thoden and Michelsson (215), studying the cries of infants of diabetic mothers, found that the fundamental frequency was still higher if the infant had hypoglycaemia and hyperbilirubinaemia simultaneously.…”

“…A preterm infant's cry differs in many respects from that of a full-term one, but this seems to depend more on gestational age than birth weight. When a preterm infant reaches a postconceptional age of 40 weeks, the cry resembles that of a full-term one (166,167,(182)(183)(184). Preterm infants have a shorter duration of crying and a higher fundamental frequency than full-term ones, and glide occurs more often, but the latency period and melody form seem to be independent of gestational age.…”

“…Michelsson et a!. ( 182), studying cries from 200 consecutive patients admitted to a newborn ward for various reasons, showed that those with metabolic and neurological diseases had a more abnormal crying pattern than those with heart or lung diseases or those admitted for observation.…”

“…The cry analysis of Michelsson et al ( 182) from 200 consecutive infants admitted to a neonatal ward included 24 full-term and 30 preterm infants with metabolic disturbances, mainly hyperbilirubinaemic children, and these were found to have both a minimum and a maximum pitch higher than that of the coQtrols. Biphonation occurred in about half of the infants and a glide in every fourth cry.…”

“…As mentioned before, it is well known that the crying of infants with kernicterus is high pitched or shriiJ (.S, 24, 33), but the timing of the change in fundamental frequency is poorly known, and it is uncertain whether the change is an early or late symptom of developing kernicterus, or whether it is brought on only by the increase in bilirubin level. What is obvious, however, is that the rise in fundamental frequency is unspecific, being associated with many diseases involving the central nervous system, such as asphyxia (160,166) meningitis (208), hypoglycaemia (213,214), and others (182,199).…”