Cerebral palsy: clinical and laboratory features

Abstract

Background and Design.- Cerebral palsy re¬sults from a static central nervous system injury which occurs in the developing brain due to vari¬ous causes of prenatal or perinatal or postnatal eti¬ologies. It mainly consists of motor or postural ab¬normality which is frequently associated with se¬izures, speech difficulties and mental retardation. In this study cerebral palsy was studied according to the various clinical and laboratory features in re¬lation to the 252 patients referred to the out-pati¬ent clinics. Results.- Prenatal etiologies were found in 10%, perinatal etiologies were found in 48%, post-natal etiologies were found in 29.3% of the patients. The type of cerebral palsy was distribu¬ted at the same rate seen in the literature. In the extrapyramidal type post-natal etiologies were se¬en at a higher rate, which could be explained with the increased incidence of kernicterus in Tur¬key. Neuroimaging was positive in the 75.7% of patient population, particularly in the hemiplegic group. Epileptic seizures were more frequently se¬en in the hemiplegic and quadriplegic type. The number of patients with EEG abnormality witho¬ut seizures (63.5%) far exceeded the ones with se¬izures..