BACKGROUND: Peri-intraventricular hemorrhage (PIVH) in preterm infants is one of the most important reasons for mortality and disability. Moreover, investigative exponents may bring supported data for incidence rate of PIVH and high-risk factors of preterm infants with PIVH.OBJECTIVE: To explore the incidence rate and analyze the high-risk factors of PIVH in preterm infants.DESIGN: Survey and analysis.SETTING: Tongji Hospital of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology; Beijing Obstetrics & Gynecology Hospital, Capital Medical Universit; Qinhuangdao Maternity and Infants' Hospital of Hebei Province.PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1 122 preterm infants of 26.3-36.8 gestational age were selected from Beijing Obstetrics & Gynecology Hospital, Qinhuangdao Maternity and Infants' Hospital from January 2002 to August 2005. All infants received ultrasonic examination on skull within 1 week. There were 594 boys and 528 girls, and the birth weight was 850-4 500 g.METHODS: All infants received ultrasonic examination on skull within 1 week. New Philips 5500 and GE Healthcare Logiq 400 ultrasonic diagnosis devices were provided by Philip Company, Dutch and GE Company, respectively.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The incidence rate and related high-risk factors of PIVH.RESULTS: All 1 122 preterm infants were involved in the final analysis. Among 1 122 preterm infants, 619 cases (55.2%) had PIVH; especially, 110 had severe PIVH with the degree more than Ⅲ, which was accounted for 17.8%.High-risk factors were mainly low gestational age, low birth weight, mechanical ventilation, hypoglycemia, hypercapnia,hyperlactic acidemia, acidosis, hypoxia, abnormal blood coagulation, and so on. Antenatal corticosteroid could reduce the incidence rate of PIVH. However, there was no obvious effect on preterm infants of old gestational age.CONCLUSION: Routine intracranial ultrasonic examination is useful for the diagnosis of PIVH in preterm infants.