Abstract

PIOVESANA, Ana Maria Sedrez Gonzaga; MOURA-RIBEIRO, Maria Valeriana Leme de; ZANARDI, Verônica de Araújo  and  GONCALVES, Vanda Maria Gimenes. Hemiparetic cerebral palsy: etiological risk factors and neuroimaging. Arq. Neuro-Psiquiatr. [online]. 2001, vol.59, n.1, pp. 29-34. ISSN 0004-282X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0004-282X2001000100007.

The purpose of this paper, which was conducted on 175 children with hemiparetic cerebral palsy (H-CP), was to verify the etiological risk period for this disease. Etiological risk factors (ERF) were detected through anamnesis: 23% in the prenatal period, 18% in the perinatal period and 59% of the patients the period was undefined (ERF in the prenatal and perinatal period was 41% and no ERF was 18% of the cases. The computerized tomographic scan (CT) and MRI were performed on all the patients, who were then classified according to their etiopathogenic data: CT1= normal (18%); CT 2= unilateral ventricular enlargement (25%); CT 3= cortical/ subcortical cavities (28%); CT4= hemispheric atrophy and other findings (14%); CT 5= malformations (15%). CT 5 was associated with physical malformations beyond the central nervous system and with prenatal ERF's , while CT 2 was associated with the perinatal ERF's, mainly in premature births. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed on 57 patients and demonstrated a good degree of concordance with the CT. Etiology remained undefined in only 37% of the cases after neuroimaging was related to ERF. A high perinatal RF frequency (59%) was observed and emphasized the need for special care during this period.

Keywords : cerebral palsy; hemiparetic cerebral palsy; etiology; etiological risk factors; computerized tomography; magnetic resonance imaging; children.