Objective: Objective of the study was to investigate the neuroradiological, neurophysiological and morphological characteristics of symptomatic epilepsy in children with cerebral palsy.

Background: Cerebral palsy of children (CP) is one of the most common adverse perinatal outcomes of the nervous system disease The frequency of cerebral palsy is 1,7-3,3 per 1000 children and 1,7-5,9 per 1,000 births. In the occurrence of cerebral palsy a number of prenatal, intranatal and postnatal factors are involved. The use of modern neuroimaging techniques has allowed to describe the pathological changes in the central nervous system in patients with cerebral palsy in early childhood.

Methods: The study was based on research results of 28 children with symptomatic epilepsy with cerebral palsy between the ages of 1 to 14. All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging and neurophysiological – electroencephalographic studies (EEG). There have also been examinations of neurological status, which included the studies of coordinator, motor, reflex, sensitive areas and cognitive functions of the cerebral cortex.

Results: According to EEG results, epileptogenic focus localized in the frontal lobe in 9 (32%) children, in 9 (32%) children in the temporal lobe, 7 (25%) in the parietal lobe, in 3 children (11%) in the occipital lobe. According to MRI studies most often finding in children with cerebral palsy (57.1%) was the white matter damage of brain, which usually called encephalopathy, mainly in the form of multiple and single lesions of pathological intensity. Lesions of the basal ganglia have been reported in 14 (50%) children, the deformation of the brain stem structures was revealed in 16 (57.1%) cases, flattening of the pituitary gland – in 1 (3.6%) child, and the expansion of subarachnoid perivascular space in 4 (14.3%) children.

Conclusions: Morphological changes in subcortical regions of the brain characterized by single or multiple cystic dysmyelination of fibers, atrophy of nerve cells, The structural changes of brain show that the morphological changes is polymorphous, and, on the other hand – a broad representation the extra pyramidal system, which reaches far beyond the limits of the basal ganglia, and its extensive ties. At the origin of symptomatic epilepsy in children with cerebral palsy definite role has cerebellar pathology, periventricular white matter and cerebral cortex disorders.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/mri-abnormalities-and-eeg-patterns-of-symptomatic-epilepsy-in-children-with-cerebral-palsy/