Polymicrogyria in infants with symptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus at birth is associated with epilepsy: A retrospective, descriptive cohort study.
George Lawson, Alexander Sheeka, Pritika Gaur and 5 others
PMID 39869483WHAT IT FOUND
In infants with congenital cytomegalovirus, polymicrogyria was associated with epilepsy: 6 of 18 infants with polymicrogyria developed epilepsy, compared with 1 of 72 without.
Key findings
01Six of 18 infants with polymicrogyria developed epilepsy, compared with one of 72 infants without polymicrogyria.
02All seven infants who developed epilepsy were symptomatic at birth.
03Microcephaly was documented in 5 of 7 infants with epilepsy and 12 of 83 infants without epilepsy.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only seven infants developed epilepsy, so the imaging association rests on small numbers. The study was retrospective and single centre, so it cannot show that polymicrogyria caused epilepsy. Baseline head circumference, birthweight and laboratory data were often missing. MRI protocols varied because scans were performed at several units with different scanners, field strengths and protocols. Children may develop seizures after follow-up, although none did after 48 months in this cohort. The MRI scoring system did not independently predict epilepsy risk.
Declared interests
There was no specific funding for this study, and the authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the odds ratio of 35.5 as proof that polymicrogyria causes epilepsy. This is a retrospective association in a small cohort, and 12 of 83 infants without epilepsy also had polymicrogyria.