Acute infantile hemiplegia caused by cerebral ischemic infarction. Etiology, clinical features and investigations.

In 19 children with acute infantile hemiplegia an ischemic cerebral infarct was found clinically and by serial computertomography. In 11 patients an angiography has been performed in addition. 9 of the children had chronic diseases which are known as predisposing factors for cerebrovascular disease (congenital heart disease in 7 and chronic renal failure with hypertension in 2). One child had a severe hypernatremic dehydration due to infantile diarrhea and in 1 child thrombosis of the internal carotid artery occurred 3 days after a perforating trauma of the soft palate. No obvious reason for the ischemic stroke could be evaluated in 8 children. The onset of symptoms was either acute or slowly progressive. An altered state of consciousness was present in 11 children. Hemiparesis was found in 18 patients (13 right, 5 left) accompanied by facial palsy in 12 and aphasia in 6. Seizures occurred in 6 patients. One patient with incomplete occlusion of a vertebral artery showed acute cerebellar ataxia. In children without predisposing factors the prevalence of girls was higher (2 : 6) and there was a history of a preceding acute febrile illness in 5 of 8 patients. Laboratory investigations showed polycythemia in 4 children with cyanotic heart disease and additional hypochromia in two. Blood sedimentation rate was increased in 6 out of 8 patients without a known predisposing factor. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) showed a slight increase of erythrocytes (36-88/cmm) in 4 children, in two others purulent CSF was obtained after the infarct had developed into a brain abscess. The etiology of ischemic stroke in childhood and the possibility of an inflammatory vascular disease are discussed.