Is delivery mode associated with intraventricular haemorrhage in very preterm infants? A retrospective analysis using brain magnetic resonance performed at term-equivalent age

Objective.To evaluate the association between delivery mode and intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) in very preterm infants.Methods.We retrospectively reviewed 280 brain MRI scans routinely performed at term-equivalent age (TEA:39 +0/7 -41 +6/7 weeks/days) in infants born between 24 +0/7 and 31 +6/7 week/ days at "G. Salesi" Children's Hospital, Ancona, Italy, from 01/01/2018 to 12/31/2023.Infants with malformations, delivery complications (e.g., placental abruption, cord prolapse, abnormal cardiotocographic tracing), no antenatal corticosteroids, or unavailable susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) were excluded.The primary outcome was IVH grades I-IV detected by SWI-sequences at TEA.The associations between delivery mode, caesarean section (CS) versus vaginal delivery (VD), and IVH were analysed using multiple regression.