Analysis of 100 infant deaths with intraventricular hemorrhage: brain weights and risk factors.

Because the lowering of brain-tissue pressure is associated with a loss in brain weight, the brain weights of 100 infants with intraventricular hemorrhage were compared with those of 100 control infants. After the 30th week of gestation the brain weight of infants with intraventricular hemorrhage were lower than those of the controls. This finding supports the authors' hypothesis of a causal relationship between brain shrinkage and intraventricular hemorrhage. Of 13 other risk factors investigated, only prematurity could be related directly to the occurrence of intraventricular hemorrhage.