Unit of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, ASST Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy; Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
Unit of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, ASST Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy.
Semin Pediatr Neurol. 2019 Oct;31:57-67. doi: 10.1016/j.spen.2019.05.008. Epub 2019 May 11.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence and clinical characteristics of autism spectrum disorder in visually impaired children. In total, 273 participants, 214 with cerebral causes of vision impairment and 59 with peripheral causes, were assessed using multiple assessment methods and adapted for individuals with vision loss. We found that autism spectrum disorder was more prevalent in the visually impaired compared to general population, and that the prevalence varied according to the type of visual disorder (2.8% for cerebral and 8.4% for peripheral visual impairment). In subjects with cerebral visual impairment, the presence of autistic symptoms was consistent with the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. In children with peripheral visual impairment, certain symptoms related to visual loss overlapped with the clinical features of autism spectrum disorder, thus making clinical diagnosis more challenging. The development of assessment tools that take into account the type and level of visual impairment and validation testing in a larger population sample are needed in order to confirm these initial findings regarding the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in visually impaired children.
本研究旨在评估视障儿童自闭症谱系障碍的发生情况和临床特征。共评估了 273 名参与者，其中 214 名因脑部原因导致视力障碍，59 名因周边原因导致视力障碍，采用了多种评估方法并针对视力丧失者进行了调整。我们发现，自闭症谱系障碍在视障儿童中的发病率高于一般人群，且发病率因视觉障碍类型而异（脑部视觉障碍为 2.8%，周边视觉障碍为 8.4%）。在脑部视觉障碍的患者中，自闭症症状的存在与自闭症谱系障碍的诊断相符。在周边视觉障碍的儿童中，某些与视觉丧失相关的症状与自闭症谱系障碍的临床特征重叠，从而使临床诊断更加具有挑战性。为了证实这些关于视障儿童自闭症谱系障碍诊断的初步发现，需要开发考虑视觉障碍类型和程度的评估工具，并在更大的人群样本中进行验证测试。
