Purpose of the study: To determine the frequency of cerebral atrophy and microcephaly in a group of children with sequential MRI brain scans after surviving a non-accidental head injury (n = 16).
Methods: Serial head circumference measurements (OFC) were extracted and plotted on standard growth charts for each child retrospectively to determine the frequency of secondary microcephaly. Cerebral atrophy was diagnosed and quantified by measurement of the ventricular/cortical ratio on coronal images of the sequential scans.
Results: Acquired microcephaly was found in 15 children (93.8%) over a median follow-up period of 67.93 weeks. There was a significant reduction in the median Z-score for the OFC at the most recent follow-up when compared with that at presentation (p < 0.001, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test). Cerebral atrophy was found to be the cause of the microcephaly in eight of the 15 children and was evident as early as 9 days after presentation.
Conclusion: A large proportion of the cohort (93.8%) develops acquired microcephaly after an inflicted head injury and cerebral atrophy is responsible in half of these cases.