[Clinical and videofluoroscopic evaluation of swallowing in patients with spastic tetraparetic cerebral palsy and athetosic cerebral palsy]. / Evaluación clínica y videofluoroscópica de la deglución en pacientes con parálisis cerebral tetraparésica espástica y atetósica.

AIM: To evaluate and to compare the findings of oral and pharyngeal phases of swallowing in children with both spastic tetraparetic cerebral palsy (STCP) and with athetosic cerebral palsy (ACP). PATIENTS AND METHODS: 11 children were evaluated, with their ages ranging from 10 months to 8 years old, through both clinical assessment and videofluoroscopic evaluation. RESULTS: The children with STCP were more involved at the neurologic, clinical and speech-language and hearing aspects. At the oral phases all the children had presented some involvement. At the pharyngeal phases the clinical signs of aspiration were identified in 10 children. It was observed aspirations in 80% of children with STCP and in 67% with ACP. The changes on swallowing were similar in both cerebral palsy groups, but the performance of the children with STCP was inferior. CONCLUSION: The videofluoroscopy was an important method which makes possible the verification of aspirations, helping the professionals at the therapeutical program for these children.

Developmental language disorder associated with polymicrogyria.

BACKGROUND: Subtle disorders of neuronal migration occur in the brains of some dyslexic patients who presented developmental language disorder (DLD) during early childhood. OBJECTIVE: To investigate a possible neuroanatomical substrate based on neuroimaging evaluation in children with DLD. METHODS: The authors obtained psychological assessment, language evaluation, neurologic examination, and neuroimaging investigation. Inclusion criteria were as follows: children should be at least 4 years of age; primary complaint of language delay; normal hearing; IQ >70; and an informed consent form signed by parents or guardians. Exclusion criteria were severe motor and cognitive handicap. RESULTS: Fifteen children met all inclusion criteria. Ages ranged from 4 to 14 years and 11 were boys. Six patients presented diffuse polymicrogyria (PMG) around the entire extent of the sylvian fissure on MRI, and they had severe clinical manifestation of DLD: they did not speak at all or had mixed phonologic-syntactic deficit syndrome. Six children presented PMG restricted to the posterior aspects of the parietal regions, and they had a milder form of DLD: mainly phonologic programming deficit syndrome. The other three children had different imaging findings. CONCLUSIONS: Developmental language disorder can be associated with polymicrogyria and the clinical manifestation varies according to the extension of cortical abnormality. A subtle form of posterior parietal polymicrogyria presenting as developmental language disorder is a mild form of perisylvian syndrome.

Discite em crianças: estudo de oito casos / Discitis en children: study of 8 cases

Os autores apresentam o estudo de oito crianças com diagnóstico de discite estabelecido através da avaliaçäo clínica, neurológica e ortopédica. A comprovaçäo de alteraçöes inflamatórias em um espaçäo discal, vertebral e em tecidos moles foi possível em estudos por imagem, sendo discutidos aqueles obtidos por radiologia convencional, tomografia computadorizada e ressonância magnética