Cranial transillumination norms of the premature infant.
Ninety-five infants from 26 to 42 weeks of gestational age were studied with a simple standardized cerebral transillumination technique utilizing a Chun gun fitted with a clear flexible disc to establish normal measurements and to test the hypothesis that transillumination is useful in differentiating "catch-up" growth from hydrocephalus. One group of infants were measured at birth; the other group were infants grown to similar gestational age and serially measured. Data from these groups were found to be similar. Transillumination was not found to be a useful technique for separating "catch-up" growth infants from the normal population, but was found to be potentially useful in separating the normal and "catch-up" population from children with hydrocephalus or serious anatomic abnormalities of the central nervous system.
D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development*; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D006849:Hydrocephalus / Q000175:diagnosis; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D012016:Reference Values; D014172:Transillumination / Q000379:methods