Re: OT: New Evidence on Main Cause of Cerebral Palsy - infection - {periventricu

[Guest guest]

My son has this exactly. PVL and diplegia CP but he also has

pervasive developement disorder. This is very interesting. Does

anybody else have a child with this as well? Jennie

>

> New Evidence on Main Cause of Cerebral Palsy

>

> By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/02/science/02infa.html

>

> A new study undermines the long-held belief among obstetricians that

> oxygen deprivation, or hypoxia, is the main cause of cerebral palsy in

> premature infants.

>

> The study, published in the October issue of The American Journal of

> Obstetrics & Gynecology, found that the brain injury that leads to

> cerebral palsy was much more commonly associated with infection than

> with hypoxia.

>

> The new findings, said Dr. Ernest Graham, an assistant professor in the

> department of obstetrics and gynecology at s Hopkins and the lead

> author of the study, have important implications for both research and

> clinical practice.

>

> " This changes our thinking, " Dr. Graham said. " In the past, we've

> focused primarily on hypoxia, " but the study suggests that monitoring

> for hypoxia " isn't likely to help very much. "

>

> Finding ways to prevent and treat infections, on the other hand, " may

> have a huge impact on the problem, " he said.

>

> The researchers studied premature infants born from 1994 to 2001 in a

> university hospital. They looked at cases of periventricular

> leukomalacia, or PVL, a specific kind of damage to the white matter of

> the brain. The white matter transmits signals in the brain and from the

> brain to the spinal cord, and is particularly subject to injury in

> premature infants.

>

> While there are other factors associated with brain damage in premature

> infants, like bleeding into the brain and pregnancies in which a woman

> carries two or more fetuses, a large majority of infants with PVL

> develop cerebral palsy. The symptoms may not be evident for many months

> after birth, but the damage can be seen on brain scans, which reveal

the

> characteristic cysts that form after brain tissue is damaged.

>

> In time, the cysts are reabsorbed, leaving abnormally enlarged

> ventricles where the brain tissue has died. PVL can cause a range of

> physical and mental disabilities from mild to very severe, but the most

> common is spastic diplegia, tightly contracted muscles in the legs that

> cannot function normally.

>

> When researchers looked at 150 preterm babies with PVL and matched them

> to a control group of 150 preemies born in the same time period who did

> not have brain damage, the results were surprising. Hypoxia, as

measured

> by umbilical cord blood tests, was no more common in the premature

> babies with PVL than it was in the other babies.

>

> Delivery by Caesarean section was not associated with PVL, nor did

tests

> of blood chemistry distinguish injured from noninjured babies. Even

> babies whose fetal heart rates were reduced during labor and delivery

> were not any more likely than other babies to suffer brain injury.

>

> What did make a difference, and it was a large one, was whether the

> babies had suffered infections. Infants who had positive bacterial

> cultures of the blood, cerebrospinal fluid or throat were two to four

> times as likely to suffer brain damage as those who did not.

> Staphylococcus infections predominated, but the researchers found more

> than 10 other kinds of infections as well, and the type of infection

> made no difference in the rates of injury.

>

> " This is an important and fascinating paper, " said Dr. Larry Gilstrap,

> chairman of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the

> University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Dr. Gilstrap, who was

not

> involved in the study, noted that with a possible cause for the brain

> injuries, methods of preventing them might be found.

>

> *

>

> The material in this post is distributed without profit to those

> who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included

> information for research and educational purposes.

> For more information go to:

> http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

> <http://oregon.uoregon.edu/%7Ecsundt/documents.htm>

> http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm

> <http://oregon.uoregon.edu/%7Ecsundt/documents.htm>

> If you wish to use copyrighted material from this email for

> purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission

> from the copyright owner.

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

My daughter has never been dxed with CP, but I've always wondered if

she had a strepB infection that went untested.

Debi

<jcneffendorf@y...> wrote:

>

> My son has this exactly. PVL and diplegia CP but he also has

> pervasive developement disorder. This is very interesting. Does

> anybody else have a child with this as well? Jennie

>

>

[Guest guest]

I had my son early and was given antibiotics because I was never

tested and they wanted to be safe but the test came back neg. He was

diagnosed with CP first also, in fact, the Doctors kept saying his

autistic traits were part of his CP. Once somebody said they were

different, they all said it was different. Odd! Do you think it is

all linked? I also read up on PANDAS. My son is very obsessive

compulsive which they say could be caused from Strep. He's never been

diagnosed with strep but he had impetigo last Spring. I had never

even heard of it but he got it the same week I had strep and my little

one had Fifths. They say they are not all tied together but how odd

is that??? We thought he was normal until he was suspose to be

rolling. He finally did at 8 mo. At 17 mo., we did an MRI which

showed PVL and than CP. At 4 1/2, they finally said PDD. He will be

7 in a few weeks. Jennie

> >

> > New Evidence on Main Cause of Cerebral Palsy

> >

> > By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

> > http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/02/science/02infa.html

> >

> > A new study undermines the long-held belief among obstetricians

> that

> > oxygen deprivation, or hypoxia, is the main cause of cerebral

> palsy in

> > premature infants.

> >

> > The study, published in the October issue of The American Journal

> of

> > Obstetrics & Gynecology, found that the brain injury that leads to

> > cerebral palsy was much more commonly associated with infection

> than

> > with hypoxia.

> >

> > The new findings, said Dr. Ernest Graham, an assistant professor

> in the

> > department of obstetrics and gynecology at s Hopkins and the

> lead

> > author of the study, have important implications for both research

> and

> > clinical practice.

> >

> > " This changes our thinking, " Dr. Graham said. " In the past, we've

> > focused primarily on hypoxia, " but the study suggests that

> monitoring

> > for hypoxia " isn't likely to help very much. "

> >

> > Finding ways to prevent and treat infections, on the other

> hand, " may

> > have a huge impact on the problem, " he said.

> >

> > The researchers studied premature infants born from 1994 to 2001

> in a

> > university hospital. They looked at cases of periventricular

> > leukomalacia, or PVL, a specific kind of damage to the white

> matter of

> > the brain. The white matter transmits signals in the brain and

> from the

> > brain to the spinal cord, and is particularly subject to injury in

> > premature infants.

> >

> > While there are other factors associated with brain damage in

> premature

> > infants, like bleeding into the brain and pregnancies in which a

> woman

> > carries two or more fetuses, a large majority of infants with PVL

> > develop cerebral palsy. The symptoms may not be evident for many

> months

> > after birth, but the damage can be seen on brain scans, which

> reveal the

> > characteristic cysts that form after brain tissue is damaged.

> >

> > In time, the cysts are reabsorbed, leaving abnormally enlarged

> > ventricles where the brain tissue has died. PVL can cause a range

> of

> > physical and mental disabilities from mild to very severe, but the

> most

> > common is spastic diplegia, tightly contracted muscles in the legs

> that

> > cannot function normally.

> >

> > When researchers looked at 150 preterm babies with PVL and matched

> them

> > to a control group of 150 preemies born in the same time period

> who did

> > not have brain damage, the results were surprising. Hypoxia, as

> measured

> > by umbilical cord blood tests, was no more common in the premature

> > babies with PVL than it was in the other babies.

> >

> > Delivery by Caesarean section was not associated with PVL, nor did

> tests

> > of blood chemistry distinguish injured from noninjured babies.

> Even

> > babies whose fetal heart rates were reduced during labor and

> delivery

> > were not any more likely than other babies to suffer brain injury.

> >

> > What did make a difference, and it was a large one, was whether

> the

> > babies had suffered infections. Infants who had positive bacterial

> > cultures of the blood, cerebrospinal fluid or throat were two to

> four

> > times as likely to suffer brain damage as those who did not.

> > Staphylococcus infections predominated, but the researchers found

> more

> > than 10 other kinds of infections as well, and the type of

> infection

> > made no difference in the rates of injury.

> >

> > " This is an important and fascinating paper, " said Dr. Larry

> Gilstrap,

> > chairman of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at

> the

> > University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Dr. Gilstrap, who

> was not

> > involved in the study, noted that with a possible cause for the

> brain

> > injuries, methods of preventing them might be found.

> >

> > *

> >

> > The material in this post is distributed without profit to those

> > who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included

> > information for research and educational purposes.

> > For more information go to:

> > http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

> > <http://oregon.uoregon.edu/%7Ecsundt/documents.htm>

> > http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm

> > <http://oregon.uoregon.edu/%7Ecsundt/documents.htm>

> > If you wish to use copyrighted material from this email for

> > purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission

> > from the copyright owner.

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

My son also went through a period where his eyes were all goopy as

well. WE took him to the Dr. because we had heard of babies that had

to get that big needle to unclog the tear ducts but the Dr. said to

just keep wiping and it would go away. He was little but I don't know

what age. Jennie

>

> WHen my Allie was born she got a cold and gunk in her eyes 5 days

> after her birth. The ped said it was simple conjunctivitis, to keep

> wiping it out with warm washclothes and it would go away. He did no

> cultures. When my next baby was born, the labor nurse could not find

> documentation of the Strep B culture done while preg, so she gave me

> antibiotics as a precaution. When doc arrived he asked me why I

> didn't tell labor nurse I had a positive test and I replied I was

> never told it was positive. Five days after Dinah was born she got a

> cold and gunk in her eyes. I was at a different ped and he

> immediately cultured her. She was positive for strep B. Then I was

> later told once a woman is positive vaginally for strep B she's

> always positive. I have wondered if I was positive with Allie like

> Dinah but because of an idiot ped, never tested to rule out.

>

> Debi

>