The neuroradiological findings of children with developmental language disorder.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the general characteristics of glucose metabolism distribution and the functional deficit in the brain of children with developmental language delay (DLD), we compared functional neuroradiological studies such as positron emission tomography (PET) of a patient group of DLD children and a control group of attention- deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children.


METHODS
Seventeen DLD children and 10 ADHD children under 10 years of age were recruited and divided into separate groups consisting of children less than 5 years of age or between 5 and 10 years of age. The PET findings of 4 DLD children and 6 control children whose ages ranged from 5 to 10 years were compared by Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) analysis.


RESULTS
All of the DLD children revealed grossly normal findings in brain MRIs, however, 87.5% of them showed grossly abnormal findings in their PET studies. Abnormal findings were most frequent in the thalamus. The patient group showed significantly decreased glucose metabolism in both frontal, temporal and right parietal areas (p < 0.005) and significantly increased metabolism in both occipital areas (p < 0.05) as compared to the control group.


CONCLUSIONS
This study reveals that DLD children may show abnormal findings on functional neuroradiological studies, even though structural neuroradiological studies such as a brain MRI do not show any abnormal findings. Frequent abnormal findings on functional neuroradiological studies of DLD children, especially in the subcortical area, suggests that further research with quantitative assessments of functional neuroradiological studies recruiting more DLD children and age-matched normal controls could be helpful for understanding the pathophysiology of DLD and other disorders confined to the developmental disorder spectrum.
Im
Sang-Hee
SH
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 250 Seongsanno, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-752, Korea.
Park
Eun Sook
ES
Kim
Deog Young
DY
Song
Dong Ho
DH
Lee
Jong Doo
JD
D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D013788:Thalamus / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism
D005947:Glucose