Ursula Kiechl-Kohlendorfer

Aim Genetic influences on cerebral activity have been described previously, but data are scarce in preterms. We aimed to investigate whether a genetic influence causes amplitude‐integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) signals to differ between singletons and twin preterm newborns. Methods This was a retrospective single‐centre study conducted at Innsbruck Medical University Hospital, Austria. Preterm infants born before 32 weeks of gestation between 6 November 2010 and 6 December 2022 were eligible for the study. The aEEG was analysed for the total maturation score, its component scores and the number of sleep–wake cycles per hour. Results We enrolled 240 preterm twin infants (57.5% male) with a mean gestational age of 30 (range: 24–32) weeks and a mean birth weight of 1324 (range: 600–2116) grams. We compared 240 singleton matched preterms. No differences were found between preterm singletons and twin preterm infants regarding the total maturation and component scores, or the number of sleep–wake cycles. aEEG showed no difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Conclusion Compared to singletons, twin infants born preterm showed no differences in aEEG signals in the first 4 weeks of life. Future studies should include more complex non‐invasive functional neuroimaging methods to gain more insight into this important topic.