Acute infantile hemiplegia caused by cerebral ischemic infarction. Etiology, clinical features and investigations.
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Resumo
In 19 children with acute infantile hemiplegia an ischemic cerebral infarct was found clinically and by serial computertomography. In 11 patients an angiography has been performed in addition. 9 of the children had chronic diseases which are known as predisposing factors for cerebrovascular disease (congenital heart disease in 7 and chronic renal failure with hypertension in 2). One child had a severe hypernatremic dehydration due to infantile diarrhea and in 1 child thrombosis of the internal carotid artery occurred 3 days after a perforating trauma of the soft palate. No obvious reason for the ischemic stroke could be evaluated in 8 children. The onset of symptoms was either acute or slowly progressive. An altered state of consciousness was present in 11 children. Hemiparesis was found in 18 patients (13 right, 5 left) accompanied by facial palsy in 12 and aphasia in 6. Seizures occurred in 6 patients. One patient with incomplete occlusion of a vertebral artery showed acute cerebellar ataxia. In children without predisposing factors the prevalence of girls was higher (2 : 6) and there was a history of a preceding acute febrile illness in 5 of 8 patients. Laboratory investigations showed polycythemia in 4 children with cyanotic heart disease and additional hypochromia in two. Blood sedimentation rate was increased in 6 out of 8 patients without a known predisposing factor. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) showed a slight increase of erythrocytes (36-88/cmm) in 4 children, in two others purulent CSF was obtained after the infarct had developed into a brain abscess. The etiology of ischemic stroke in childhood and the possibility of an inflammatory vascular disease are discussed.