Study of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of Brain in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Introduction: One of the most common forms of severe disability of childhood is cerebral palsy which has a special relationship to preterm birth. Cerebral palsy is a broad term used to describe a spectrum of non-progressive motor disabilities, resulting from brain damage at or around birth. It presents with muscle spasticity with involuntary movements, impaired mobility, seizures etc. At present, cerebral palsy has no cure and it is managed symptomatically. Aim: To study the different lesions in the brain in children with clinically diagnosed cerebral palsy and correlation of the findings on MRI brain with type of cerebral palsy. Materials and Methods: Total 60 diagnosed cases of cerebral palsy were evaluated with history and clinical examination. Cerebral palsy children were investigated by performing neuroimaging (MRI). The MRI scans were conducted on a GE Sigma 1.5 Scanner. Routinely, the scans obtained were T1 Weighted, T2 Weighted and FLAIR (axial, coronal and sagittal) sequences. In each patient, the images were assessed for any abnormal signal in the brain parenchyma, myelination of brain as per age of the baby and size of the ventricle. Results: The maximum number of children (36%) were from the age group 1-2 years followed by 30% in the age group of < 1 year and 18% in age group of 3-4 years. Out of 60 patients 61.66% were males and 38.33% females. The majority of patients were delivered pre-term (68.33%) followed by term delivery (31.67%). The majority of patients had spastic quadriplegia type of cerebral palsy. Periventricular leukomalacia was the most common abnormality found on imaging. The corpus callosum agenesis was seen in 1 (20%) patient. Conclusion: The MRI scans help to reveal the pathologic causes leading to the condition with the MRI brain findings having a strong correlation with the clinical findings. The relationship between the locality of brain lesions, the structure and clinical functions in children with CP point to further workup as they are important pre-requisites for questioning reorganization and plasticity.

Keywords

• Encephalopathy
• Hypoxia
• Preterm birth