Abstract
The aim of this study was to clarify the relation between the date of cyst formation
and the timing of injury in preterm infants with periventricular leukomalacia in order
to address the issue of whether or not we can determine the timing of injury on the
basis of ultrasonographic findings. We studied 33 preterm infants with cystic periventricular
leukomalacia, the gestational ages being 32 weeks or less. As 27 of them exhibited
either acute or chronic stage abnormalities in the initial electroencephalogram, the
timing of injury was presumed to be before or around birth. For the remaining six
infants, the timing of injury was considered to be postnatal in two infants, and was
not determined in another four. The median date of cyst formation was 18 days of age
(range, 10–39 days) in the 27 infants with abnormal initial electroencephalograms.
For these 27 infants, the gestational age did not influence the date of cyst formation.
In contrast, the date of cyst formation was significantly earlier in infants with
widespread cysts than in those with localized cysts. In conclusion, it is difficult
to determine the timing of injury from ultrasonographic findings, because the range
of the date of cyst formation on ultrasonography was very wide among infants whose
timing of injury was not greatly different.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
June 25,
2001
Received in revised form:
June 22,
2001
Received:
March 22,
2001
Identification
Copyright
© 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
