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Updated: Jun 2, 2026

Non-invasive Optical Measurement of Cerebral Metabolism and Hemodynamics in Infants
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Published on: March 14, 2013

Bilateral middle cerebral artery thromboembolic occlusion. Could maternal hyperthermia be a detrimental factor?

Alberto Spalice1, Francesca Del Balzo, Laura Papetti

  • 1Pediatric Neurology Division, Department of Pediatrics, La Sapienza University 1, Rome, Italy. childneurology.sapienzaroma@live.it

Medical Hypotheses
|May 14, 2011
PubMed

We describe a six-month-old girl with microcephaly, developmental delay, truncal hypotonia, left pyramidal signs, partial seizures and myoclonic spasms, born to a feverish mother. MRI showed bilateral vascular lesions in the territory of the middle cerebral arteries, prevalent in the right hemisphere, together with hypoplasia of the posterior part of the corpus callosum and Wallerian degeneration of the cerebral peduncle. There may be many reasons for these lesions. In the reported patient the presence of maternal hyperthermia could have exacerbated cerebral thromboembolic occlusion.

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