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The pattern of language deficit following left-hemisphere brain injury and visual/spatial deficit following right-hemisphere injury in an adult or older child is well recognized, but has been inconsistently reported following presumed neonatal brain injury. Our prospective study of 24 children at age 5 with documented neonatal unilateral brain injury lends support to the theory of hemisphere specialization at the time of birth. Twelve children who had unilateral left-hemisphere lesion were compared to 12 children with unilateral right-hemisphere lesion of similar timing and severity. Relative visual/spatial deficit following right-hemisphere lesion and receptive language deficit following left-hemisphere lesion were identified. Lateralized measures of grip strength, fine motor speed, and fine motor dexterity were not significantly different between the groups for either hand in this nonhemiparetic study sample. Only one child with a left-hemisphere lesion was left-handed, and only one child (right-lesion) had a hemiparesis.

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Neurodevelopmental evaluation in childhood provides an opportunity to study complex neurological compensation following documented neonatal brain injury, and furnishes important clinical information which may have an impact on patient care. We studied 152 term children treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as neonates and who received routine neonatal neuroimaging and comprehensive neurodevelopmental evaluation at age 5 years. The cohort was divided into four groups based on an independent neuroimaging score: No lesion, N=88; Mild lesion, N=38; Moderate lesion, N=12; and Severe lesion, N=14. Standardized testing at age 5 included complete neuropsychological assessment, neurological evaluation, and assessment of motor function. All testing was conducted without knowledge of the neuroimaging score. The occurrence of disability by severity of neuroimaging was: No lesion=10%; Mild=13%; Moderate=33%; Severe=57%. The relative risk within the ECMO population for disability at age 5 after moderate or severe neonatal lesion was 4.3 (CI=1.0 to 17.5) and 11.7 (CI=3.3 to 41.3), respectively. The remaining non-disabled children who had moderate to severe lesions functioned within normal limits. Severity of neonatal neuroimaging was inversely associated with IQ scores, pre-academic skills, and neuromotor function. The effect size was small but the rank order was predictable. Our data identify in 5-year-old children an impact of brain lesion severity demonstrated on routine neonatal neuroimaging. The results indicate potential compensation following moderate and severe lesions, and suggest a subtle but consistent influence of even mild neonatal brain injury.

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OBJECTIVE: To determine the neurodevelopmental status at age 5 years among children who received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in the newborn period as a treatment for severe cardiorespiratory failure. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 103 five-year-old ECMO-treated children born between June 1984 and July 1988, and treated at our institution. Thirty-seven healthy control children were recruited locally. The assessment protocol included a complete neuropsychologic assessment, psychosocial assessment with parent questionnaires, a standard neurologic evaluation, assessment of gross motor and fine motor function, a medical history, and physical examination. RESULTS: Major disability was present in 17 of the ECMO cohort. Eleven ECMO-treated children (11%) were mentally retarded, one of whom was profoundly impaired. Two additional children had severe learning disabilities. Cerebral palsy was diagnosed in 5 (5%) ECMO-treated children, but all cases were mild in nature and the patients were walking unaided. One child has paraplegia. The mean Full Scale, Verbal, and Performance IQs of the EMCO-treated children were within the normal range, but as a group were significantly lower than in control children (96 vs 115, p < 0.001). Children treated with ECMO had increased risk relative to the control children for academic difficulties at school age (49% VS 22%, P < 0.01) and a higher rate of behavioral problems reported by parents (42% vs 16%, p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The rate of major disability was comparable to that in other high-risk populations. The high rate of behavioral problems and increased risk of subsequent school failure among nonretarded ECMO-treated children supports the need for close follow-up of these children after hospital discharge.

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The CT findings in 32 patients with pathologically proven metastases to the kidney were compared to findings in 74 patients with renal cell carcinoma. Fourteen CT criteria were chosen to describe and characterize the lesions and 2 radiologists evaluated the CT images retrospectively according to these criteria. Renal metastases were characterized as small, multiple, bilateral, wedge-shaped, less exophytic, and located within the renal capsule. Renal cell carcinomas were single, unilateral, nonwedge-shaped, and exophytic, and easily transgressed the renal capsule. The sensitivity of CT to discriminate renal cell carcinoma from renal metastasis was 93.2% for renal cell carcinoma, and to discriminate renal metastasis from renal cell carcinoma was 75.0% for renal metastases by computer posterior probabilities. This study indicates that CT is useful for distinguishing these clinically important tumors. By using posterior probability, some unnecessary biopsies may be avoided.

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"Satisfaction of search" (SOS) refers to the effect in which a second lesion remains undetected after detection of another lesion on the same radiograph. The objective of this study was to clarify our understanding of SOS by relating it to total time of inspection and time intervals before, between, and after discovery of lesions. Detection accuracy of native lesions in chest radiographs, before and after the addition of a simulated nodular lesion, was measured for ten observers. Analysis of data from this and a previous experiment showed that average perceptual accuracy of individual receiver operating characteristic curves was significantly reduced with the addition of the nodules. Plots and analyses of search time revealed that, on average, during a typical 46-second inspection of a case, simulated nodules were found at 18 seconds, native abnormalities at 25 seconds, and false positives occurred at 33 seconds. Time needed to find nodules did not depend on whether native lesions were present; time to find native lesions did not change with addition of nodules; and total search time was the same for images with one, two, or no lesions. The detection results show that the SOS effect was obtained, but that interrupting search in order to measure it also diminishes accuracy. Analysis of the time course data relates SOS to perceptual capture and strategic halting of search.

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The MR appearance of the corpus callosum was investigated in 80 normal volunteers. Normal variations in appearance were recorded with regard to age, gender, and handedness. The MR studies of 47 patients with a wide spectrum of callosal disease were also reviewed. Abnormalities included trauma, neoplasia, congenital abnormalities, vascular lesions, and demyelinating and inflammatory conditions. The information provided by MR was compared with that obtained from other radiographic examinations, particularly CT and angiography. In all cases MR provided as much, and frequently more, information than was obtained by other imaging techniques. We believe that MR should be the primary imaging technique for the evaluation of corpus callosal disease.

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