Back to BrainRepair UG
Profile photo
Arne Jensen (Start Up CEO Founder, BrainRepair UG )

Published at Thursday, April 25, 2019 8:55 AM on the BrainRepair UG organization's page

Brain damage in newborns - unique index discovered

Brain damage in newborns - unique index discovered / Head circumference determines brain damage in newborns!

 

Bochum (ots) - RUB-Medics: "The risk for white matter brain damage is increased tenfold in term-born neonates with large head circumference - despite full vitality" Bochum's medics have discovered a unique method to detect babies at high-risk for white matter brain damage, a prime factor causing cerebral palsy in childhood. They prospectively screened 4,725 term-born infants by cranial ultrasound, a population that usually is not examined, and revealed that a large head circumference at birth (>90th centile) increases the risk for brain damage tenfold. This clarifies a hitherto unexplained phenomenon. "For us, white matter damage in a seemingly healthy population of largely male term-born neonates appears to be the missing link between the insult that escapes diagnosis and the development of unexplained cerebral palsy in childhood", says Prof. Dr. Arne Jensen of the Campus Clinic Gynaecology at the Ruhr-University Bochum. Together with his colleague Bert Holmer, MD, he reports in the journal "Obstetrics and Gynecology International" https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ogi/2018/2120835/.

 

Fig. 1: Head imaging (MRI) at 7 years of age. Depression of the brain during birth (Arrow) due to large head circumference (> 90th centile) and narrow birth canal (cephalo-pelvic disproportion) (Jensen and Hamelmann 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/1717426).