Early detection of cerebral palsy: sensitivity and specificity of two motor assessment tools.

The early detection of cerebral palsy is an important goal of NICU follow-up clinics, and a variety of different neuromotor assessment tools are used to assess its presence. This study aimed to examine retrospectively the sensitivity and specificity of the Bayley Motor Scale and the Movement Assessment of Infants (MAI) in correctly identifying infants at four months' corrected age as either "normal" or "suspect/abnormal." The MAI was more than twice as sensitive as the Bayley Motor Scale at detecting early signs of cerebral palsy. However, the Bayley Motor Scale had fewer "false positives" for cerebral palsy than the MAI. Sensitivity and specificity for these two instruments were compared to those of other neurological assessment tools in previously published studies.