Neuropathologic documentation of prenatal brain damage
W. G. Ellis, B. W. Goetzman and J. A. Lindenberg
Department of Pathology, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine 95616.
Neuropathologic evidence of prenatal brain damage, chiefly in cerebral
white matter, was found in 25% of infants who died at 7 days of age or
less, with a total of ten preterm (16%) and 12 term (48%) infants among the
89 subjects studied. Few clinical features distinguished infants with
prenatal injury from those without such injuries. Apgar scores were low,
seizures were rare, and acute intracranial hemorrhage occurred equally
often in both groups. Few pregnancies were entirely normal, but hydramnios
was the only factor that occurred more often in prenatally injured infants,
a statistically significant difference only among term infants.
Oligohydramnios was not associated with prenatal brain injury. Unless
fetal/maternal abnormalities in late gestation are identified and
corrected, improved neonatal care will increase survival for prenatally
damaged infants and the incidence of cerebral palsy may rise.
