[Relationship between developmental prognosis and changing picture of postural findings in early infancy among early treated children].
We followed 93 infants prospectively who were treated because of moderate and severe grades of cerebral coordination disturbances since less than 6 months of age. They were divided into 3 groups according to developmental prognosis at 4 years of age; normal 44, mental retardation 18, and cerebral palsy 31. We compared the postural findings in supine and prone position, and 7 postural reactions at the first examination with those at discharge about 50 days after the first examination. We assessed the changing pictures of postural findings as improved, not changed or worsened. We analyzed the relationship between the changing pictures of postural findings during the short period in early infancy and the developmental prognosis among the 3 groups. The normal group showed improvement in a larger number of items than the other two groups. The findings of cerebral palsied children showed poor improvement, and more postural reactions changed to be more pathologic than those in the other two groups. Among the cerebral palsied children, ambulatory cases showed better improvement than those who could not crawl. But we found no significant difference between ambulatory and crawling children. This study demonstrated that assessment of changing pictures of postural findings in early infancy was helpful to predict developmental prognosis.
Yuge
M
M
Department of Pediatrics, St. Joseph Hospital for Handicapped Children, Kyoto.
Yamori
Y
Y
Kanda
T
T
Ando
R
R
D000367:Age Factors; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D011187:Posture; D011379:Prognosis