Cerebral infarct in head injury: relationship to child abuse.
BACKGROUND
To determine whether CT-detected cerebral infarct in young children is associated more often with abuse or unintentional head injury.


METHODS
Retrospective case-control study of injured children under age 6 who had abnormal initial head CT scans and who were admitted to the only Level I pediatric trauma center in Washington State for closed head injury (CHI) from January 1, 1992 to December 31, 1998.


RESULTS
Fifteen children developed cerebral infarct after CHI during the 7 year period. These cases were compared to 53 controls (those who did not develop infarct). After adjusting for the presence of SDH and for severity of injury, patients with infarcts were six times more likely to have been abused than patients without infarcts (OR 6.1; 95% CI, 1.02-36.0).


CONCLUSIONS
Cerebral infarct after CHI appears to result more frequently from abuse than unintentional injury in young children.
Ransom
Galen H
GH
Department of Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Mann
Frederick A
FA
Vavilala
Monica S
MS
Haruff
Richard
R
Rivara
Frederick P
FP
D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology*; D002649:Child Abuse; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed