Language and motor skills are impaired in infants with biliary atresia before transplantation.
OBJECTIVE
To test the hypothesis that in very young patients with biliary atresia, cognitive deficits are apparent before transplantation.


METHODS
With the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (Mullen), we examined 15 infants (mean age, 7.8 months) with biliary atresia, correlating Mullen scores with standard clinical and biochemical parameters.


RESULTS
Overall, participants displayed significant delays in gross motor and language skills, and fine motor and visual reasoning skills were relatively preserved. The international normalized ratio correlated inversely with gross (P < .01) and fine (P < .05) motor skills. Growth parameters correlated positively with expressive language ability, but length of hospitalization and mode of feeding did not. Age at performance of the Kasai procedure was found to correlate with receptive language performance (P < .05).


CONCLUSIONS
Very young children with biliary atresia display a characteristic profile of early developmental deficits before transplantation. These findings suggest that early intervention and aggressive nutritional management should be the standard of care to minimize neurocognitive effects.
Caudle
Susan E
SE
Psychology Service, Texas Children's Hospital and Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX. Electronic address: secaudle@texaschildrens.org.
Katzenstein
Jennifer M
JM
Psychology Service, Texas Children's Hospital and Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
Karpen
Saul J
SJ
Texas Children's Liver Center, Texas Children's Hospital and Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
McLin
Valérie A
VA
Texas Children's Liver Center, Texas Children's Hospital and Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX; Unité de Gastroentérologie pédiatrique, Hôpital des Enfants, Geneva, Switzerland.
D001656:Biliary Atresia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D002149:Energy Intake; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D019934:International Normalized Ratio; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D011340:Problem Solving; D013850:Thinking