CASE REPORTS   

Panminerva Medica 1998 June;40(2):161-5

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Focal ischemic injury of middle cerebral artery in newborn infants

Domizio S., Verrotti A.*, Chiarelli F., Sabatino G.

From the Department of Neonatology and * Pediatrics University of Chieti, Italy

Three full term new­borns with focal ischem­ic inju­ry of the mid­dle cere­bral ­artery (MCA) were ­observed. Diagnosis was sus­pect­ed by cere­bral ultra­so­nog­ra­phy (US) in the first year of life and then was con­firmed by CT-scan and/or MRI. All chil­dren had a his­to­ry of pre-per­i­na­tal risk fac­tors of fetal impair­ment. Neuropsychological out­come, rang­ing from nor­mal to ­severe, was eval­u­at­ed in all three ­patients; it ­appears to be relat­ed to the type and exten­sion of cere­bral inju­ry. In full-term neo­nates with dis­crete, mod­er­ate or ­severe neu­ro­log­ic symp­toms the pos­sibil­ity of focal ischem­ic inju­ry in the MCA ter­ri­to­ry ­should be con­sid­ered.