Abstract

Twenty two patients with previous episodes of haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) were investigated for evidence of deficits in cognitive, behavioural, and academic function. Patients were pair matched with 22 controls for age (+/- 1 year), gender, and socioeconomic status. HUS patients had numerically lower cognitive and achievement scores and higher behavioural problem ratings than their controls on every measure. None of the group differences was significant at the 0.01 level. Significance values between 0.10 and 0.01 were obtained for the Wechsler full scale and verbal intelligence quotient scores and for several of the achievement measures and behaviour ratings. These results were conservatively interpreted as trends and are considered to provide preliminary indications of a post-HUS deficit in behaviour, verbal intelligence, and the verbally based skills of reading comprehension and vocabulary. The findings provide interim guidelines for follow up care but require confirmation and elaboration in a larger study.