Neurological diagnoses in children potentially fulfilling the criteria for developmental coordination disorder

To investigate whether initial neurological phenotypical assessment can predict the diagnostic outcome in children potentially fulfilling the criteria for developmental coordination disorder (DCD).

In this cohort study, we retrospectively investigated the medical records of 50 children potentially fulfilling the DCD criteria, referred to the Pediatric Neurology Outpatient Clinic of the University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands, between 2016 and 2022. On the basis of the reported diagnosis after diagnostic evaluation, the included children were retrospectively assigned either to a DCD or an alternative diagnosis group. We calculated predictive values on the basis of the initially suspected and finally reported diagnosis. We statistically compared clinical and diagnostic parameters (n = 51) between the DCD and alternative diagnosis groups.

Sixty-two per cent of patients received a diagnosis of DCD (n = 31 out of 50) and 38% of the patients received an alternative diagnosis (n = 19 out of 50). An underlying genetic aetiology was exposed in 58% of patients with alternative diagnoses (n = 11 out of 19). The positive predictive value for DCD was 52% and for alternative diagnoses 21%. There were no statistically distinguishing parameters between both groups.

In children potentially fulfilling the DCD criteria, initial neurological phenotypical assessment is insufficiently predictive of the diagnostic outcome. With the perspective of lacking distinctive features between DCD and alternative diagnoses and the high prevalence of underlying genetic mutations, additional neurogenetic assessment is recommended.