Abstract 1254 Poster Session II, Sunday, 5/2 (poster 77)

Hypoxic-ischemic brain damage is a major neurologic problem in the perinatal period. In particular, periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) has been recognized as a major cause of spastic cerebral palsy (CP) in infants born with premature delivery. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study was performed on 40 spastic CP children born before 36 weeks of gestation, between 3 and 7 yrs old. The CP cases were classified into four groups: Group I; CP who can walk without crutches (n=24), Group II; CP who can walk with crutches (n=5), Group III; CP who can walk with walkers (n=4) and Group IV; CP who can not walk (n=7). The volumes of white matter of occipital lobe (OL) and frontal lobe (FL) were measured using by MRI-based volumetry and compared with the degree of motor impairment. MRIs were performed by the Siemens Magnetom Impact 1.0T with a head coil. The white matter ratio (area of white matter/total area) were measured at the T1-weighed axial planes which include head of caudate nucleus, putamen, internal capsule, and optic radiation by the image-analyzing software.

The volume of the white matter of OL in Group III and IV of CP were significantly lower compared with those in controls and Group I of CP cases (p < 0.05, in each). Whereas, there was no significant differences of the volume of the white matter of FL among these four groups of CP cases and control cases. These results suggest that the volume of the white matter of the OL reflects the severity of motor impairment in the children with CP, but not of the FL. (Table) Each value represents the mean of the white matter ratio (area of white matter/total area). *p < 0.05 compared with Controls and Group I.

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