[Computerized tomography and ultrasound in the early diagnosis of brain damage]

Eighty-one neonates were evaluated clinically by ultrasound and/or CT with the aim of assessing diagnostic possibilities of both methods in the cases of pathomorphologic findings linked with perinatal risk factors and subsequent neurologic deficits. In perinatal at-risk infants (N = 11), premature infants (N = 6) and term infants (N = 5) ultrasound is a reliable diagnostic method in the detection and follow-up of intraventricular hemorrhage and perivascular leukomalacia in preterm infants, while for the diagnosis of hypoxic-ischemic lesions, especially focal cortico-subcortical changes in term infants, besides ultrasound it is necessary to perform CT. In perinatal infants (N = 50) with neurologic deficits at the age of 2-5 years, on CT scanning, atrophic changes were found in 50% of cases, while in 10% vascular lesions were observed, and a combination of atrophic and vascular lesions was found in 28% of the cases examined. In the group of infants (N = 20) with neurologic deficits (II and III trimenon) without risk factors, on CT scanning the pathomorphologic finding was identified as a vascular or atrophic lesion. In the authors' opinion, CT is the only objective method in the detection of the precise localization and evaluation of lesions in children with neurologic deficits after their first year of life.