Are incidental findings on brain magnetic resonance images in children merely incidental?

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that children with developmental delay without regression of unknown etiology are more likely to have intracranial incidental findings than are children with autistic spectrum disorder or children with normal development. Of 771 patients with magnetic resonance images, 363 (47.1%) patients had developmental delay, 55 (7.1%) had autistic spectrum disorders, and 353 (45.8%) were developmentally normal. Developmentally delayed children were more likely than those with normal development (odds ratio [OR], 1.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-2.5; P < .001) or those with autistic spectrum disorder (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.1-4.1; P = .019) to have an intracranial incidental finding. We report a higher prevalence of intracranial incidental findings in children with developmental delay as compared with those children with normal development. Future study should confirm whether the result of this study is merely incidental or truly related to a subgroup of children with developmental disability.