Brain MRI Findings in Infantile Spasm: Outcome Correlations in a Patient Cohort

Abstract

Background: Infantile spasm is a type of pediatric seizure often associated with a negative prognosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of Magnetic Reso-nance Imaging (MRI) in categorization and neurodevelopmental outcomes in chil-dren with infantile spasm. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study of the clini-cal charts and MRI findings of infants diagnosed with infantile spasm between De-cember 2007 and February 2014. Results: A total of 26 children (16 males; 1.6/1) were included: 8 of unknown etiology and 18 with a genetic/structural-metabolic causes. Unknown etiology cases revealed normal brain MRI in 5/8 (62.5%). In the genetic/ structural-metabolic group, only 2/18 (11.1%) had normal imaging. Abnormal im-aging findings significantly correlated with genetic/structural-metabolic infantile spasm which had unfavorable neurodevelopmental outcome. Conclusion: Neuroimaging conveys substantial information to the further categorization of children with infan-tile spasm, providing not only relevant information of the underlying cause but also the prediction of the neurodevelopmental outcome.