Retinal hemorrhage and brain injury patterns on diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in children with head trauma.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate associations between retinal hemorrhage severity and hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HII) patterns by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) in young children with head trauma.


METHODS
DW-MRI images of a consecutive cohort study of children under age 3 years with inflicted or accidental head trauma who had eye examinations were analyzed by two independent masked examiners for type, severity, and location of primary lesions attributable to trauma, HII secondary to trauma, and mixed injury patterns. Retinal hemorrhage was graded retrospectively on a scale from 1 (none) to 5 (severe).


RESULTS
Retinal hemorrhage score was 3-5 in 6 of 7 patients with predominantly post-traumatic HII pattern and 4 of 32 who had traumatic injury without HII (P < 0.001) on DW-MRI imaging. Severe retinal hemorrhage was observed in absence of HII but only in inflicted injury. Retinal hemorrhage severity was correlated with HII severity (ρ = 0.53, P < 0.001) but not traumatic injury severity (ρ = -0.10, P = 0.50). HII severity was associated with retinal hemorrhage score 3-5 (P = 0.01), but traumatic injury severity was not (P = 0.37).


CONCLUSIONS
During inflicted head injury, a distinct type of trauma occurs causing more global brain injury with HII and more severe retinal hemorrhages. HII is not a necessary factor for severe retinal hemorrhage to develop from inflicted trauma.
Division of Ophthalmology, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Department of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Electronic address: binenbaum@email.chop.edu.
Gil
G
Binenbaum
Cindy W
CW
Christian
Rebecca N
RN
Ichord
Gui-shaung
GS
Ying
Melissa A
MA
Simon
Kathleen
K
Romero
Avrum N
AN
Pollock
Brian J
BJ
Forbes
D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020925:Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012166:Retinal Hemorrhage / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012189:Retrospective Studies