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Neuroimaging for children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders (NDDs) in the African Population

Neuroimaging (NI) for Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), especially in areas with high infection rates, prevalent in malnutrition and inadequate neonatal care, remains a scarce resource. The value of expensive NI investigations in the work-up of NDDs in low and middle income countries (LMIC) is not well understood. We investigated the spectrum of NI findings in a clinical population of children with NDDs in South Africa.

This study was embedded in the South African arm of the NeuroDev study, a project exploring genetic variation amongst children with NDDs in African populations. Clinical information regarding aetiology, management and NI findings were collected from records of children attending a tertiary developmental clinic over three years(2018-2021)

One hundred and fifteen children (17.8% of total 647 participants) had NI studies as part of their clinical work-up and were included in this embedded analysis. Median age of participants was 5 years (range 2-13years). Seventy-four children (64%) were males; 41(36%) were females. Of the total number of scans, 43(37.2%) were Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI), 37(32.2%) Computerised Tomography(CT) and 35(30.4%) both. There were 33 (28.7%) MRIs and 23(20%) CT scans were reported abnormal. The commonest abnormalities were ventricle/skull anomalies on CT and abnormal cerebral white matter on MRIs.

The preliminary results reveal that for this group of children with NI, non-specific abnormal cerebral white matter on MRIs was the most common pattern in keeping with the clinical picture of global developmental delays, but not always suggesting a specific aetiology or changing management.
Keywords: Neuroimaging, Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Aleya Remtulla
University of Cape Town
South Africa

Emma Eastman
University of Cape Town
South Africa

Deepika Goolab
University of Cape Town
South Africa

Este Sauerman
University of Cape Town
South Africa

Raphaela Itzikowitz
University of cape Town
South Africa

Brigitte Melly
University of Cape Town
South Africa

Charles Newton
KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Collaborative Research Programme
Kenya

Amina Abubakar
KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Collaborative Research Programme
Kenya

Elise Robinson
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
United States

Kirsten A Donald
University of Cape Town
South Africa

 

 


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