Population-based study of neuroimaging findings in children with cerebral palsy.

Background: Neuroimaging is currently recommended as a standard evaluation in children with cerebral palsy (CP).

Objective: Utilizing imaging findings from a population-based registry (REPACQ), the frequency and proportion of cerebral radiologic abnormalities in children CP over a four year birth cohort was investigated.

Methods: Descriptions of CT and MRI studies were extracted from the Registry dataset and classified into 10 distinct categories.

Results: Two hundred and thirteen children had imaging available (119 males, 94 females, mean age of 44 months [SD. ± 14 months] at Registry inscription). Eighty seven percent of participants had documented cerebral abnormalities, the most common of which were periventricular white matter injury (PVWMI) (19.2%), diffuse gray matter injury (14.6%), cerebral vascular accident (CVA) (11.7%), and cerebral malformation (11.3%). Also, 18.8% of participants had non-specific radiologic findings and 13.1% of participants had normal imaging results. Severe CP (i.e. GMFCS Level IV-V) and spastic quadriplegic CP were significantly associated with the neuroimaging findings of gray matter injury, while spastic hemiplegic CP was association with CVA, and dyskinetic and spastic diplegic CP were both associated with normal and non-specific neuroimaging findings.

Conclusions: Specific patterns of neuroimaging findings in children with CP were found to be associated with neurological subtype, CP severity (i.e. GMFCS Level) and other categorical variables.