Cranial MRI findings in pediatric patients with bilateral spastic paralysis. Comparison with neonatal cranial echography and correlation with neurological sequelae

Fourteen patients with bilateral spastic paralysis (an average age of 2 years and 5 months) were examined using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Common MRI findings were an enlarged cerebral ventricle, irregular wall, abnormal signal area in the vicinity of the cerebral ventricle, decrease in the content of white matter, and thickening of the callosum. These findings seemed to reflect pathological lesions in periventricular leukomalacia (PVL). Of 3 patients who had been diagnosed as having cystic PVL on neonatal ultrasonography, 2 had cystic lesions in the corresponding areas on MRI. In the other patient with cystic PVL, membrane-like wall between the cyst and the enlarged cerebral ventricle was different from that seen definitely in porencephalie on spin density images. In patients in whom PVL was missed on neonatal ultrasonography, MRI demonstrated PVL. There was correlation between MRI findings and neurological sequelae: the severity of exercise function tended to correlate with the degree of decreased white matter; however, there was no correlation between spread of abnormal signal areas and the severity of exercise function. (N.K.)