Early diagnosis of spastic diplegia, spastic hemiplegia, and quadriplegia
S. R. Harris
Physical Therapy Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
A retrospective study examined early neurodevelopmental behaviors of
children with spastic diplegia, spastic hemiplegia, and quadriplegia
(spastic, athetoid, or mixed) who had been followed up longitudinally in a
high-risk infant follow-up clinic. Compared with peers with normal
outcomes, children with all three types of cerebral palsy had significantly
lower scores on the Bayley Mental Scale at 4 months of age; children with
hemiplegia and quadriplegia also scored significantly lower on the Bayley
Motor Scale. On the Movement Assessment of Infants at 4 months of age, the
children with hemiplegia and quadriplegia showed significantly higher risk
scores than the nonhandicapped group. The Movement Assessment of Infants
was more than three times as sensitive as the Bayley Motor Scale in
detecting motor abnormalities in 4-month-old infants with diplegia and more
than twice as sensitive in detecting early abnormalities of hemiplegia. At
1 year of age, however, the Bayley Motor Scale was extremely sensitive in
picking up motor deficits in children with all three types of cerebral
palsy.
