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

Introduction: Cerebral palsy is one of the most frequent forms of severe childhood disability, and it has a unique link to preterm delivery. Cerebral palsy is a broad term that refers to a range of non-progressive motor deficits caused by brain injury before or shortly after birth. Muscle stiffness, involuntary movements, reduced mobility, seizures, and other symptoms are common. At present, cerebral palsy has no cure and it is managed symptomatically.

Aim: To investigate the various brain lesions in children with clinically diagnosed cerebral palsy, as well as the relationship between MRI brain results and the kind of cerebral palsy.

Materials and Methods: A total of 60 cerebral palsy cases were assessed using a history and clinical examination. Neuroimaging was used to evaluate children with cerebral palsy (MRI). A GE Sigma 1.5 Scanner was used for the MRI scans. 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 (60%) followed by term delivery (40%). The majority of the patients had cerebral palsy of the spastic quadriplegia type. The most prevalent abnormality discovered on imaging was periventricular leukomalacia. One (%) of the patients had corpus callosum agenesis.

Conclusion: The MRI scans aid in the discovery of the pathologic origins of the illness, with MRI brain findings showing a high association with clinical results.

The association between the location of brain lesions, their structure, and clinical functions in children with CP suggests that more research is needed, as these are critical prerequisites for investigating reorganization and plasticity.