Microcephaly is a pathology of the central nervous system, characterized by underdevelopment of the skull and brain - the child's head is less than normal by an average of 25%, the coverage is also lower than normal.
If the normal brain weight is about 400 grams, a child with microcephaly weighs up to 250 grams. In this case, the circumference of the head, on average, is less than the norm by 10 cm. The circumference of the head should normally be about 35-37 cm, with sick children it is no more than 25-27 cm.
Symptoms of microcephaly:
- Reduced volume of the skull and brain, the facial part of the skull is larger than the cerebral part.
- Delayed intellectual development. Patients with the less pronounced form can learn, serve themselves, and perform simple requests. Note that with any form of development, the child needs adult supervision and support.
- Neurological disorders - often it is strabismus, spastic paresis, seizures, epilepsy or infantile cerebral palsy.
- Children later master basic skills - crawling, sitting, standing, walking, holding the head.
- Delayed speech development - children have unclear articulation, cannot pronounce words accurately, have a limited vocabulary, and have difficulty perceiving other people's speech.
Causes of microcephaly:
Microcephaly can be caused by a variety of factors: radiation, infections, medications, genetic disorders. One cause of congenital microcephaly can be intrauterine infections - such as rubella, cytomegalovirus, toxoplasmosis, Dengue fever, possibly Zika fever.
Microcephaly is characteristic of syndromes such as:
- trisomy on chromosome 18 (Edwards syndrome);
- Trisomy on chromosome 13 (Patau syndrome);
- Trisomy on chromosome 21 (Down syndrome);
- cat's cry syndrome;
- Miller-Dicker lissencephaly syndrome;
- Prader-Willi syndrome ;
- fetal alcohol syndrome.
How the disease is diagnosed:
To identify the disease even at the stage of pregnancy, it is necessary to compare the biometric parameters of the fetus obtained during a dynamic ultrasound examination. The newborn is diagnosed during examination by a doctor - the doctor visually identifies whether the head is reduced in size and there is no disproportion of the parts of the skull. If necessary, the doctor sends the parents with the child to consult a geneticist to check for hereditary diseases.
For a complete neurological examination, the following tests must be performed: neurosonography - study of the infant brain, EEG, CT and MRT of the brain.
Treatment and care:
There is no specific treatment for microcephaly. A multidisciplinary team of specialists is needed to assess and treat newborns and children with microcephaly. Early stimulation activities and play programs can have a positive impact on development. Family counseling and parental support is also very important.
Prognosis and prevention of microcephaly:
The prognosis for life expectancy and socialization is variable. Some children are capable of attending a remedial school and learning basic self-care skills. In general, the prognosis for microcephaly is unfavorable: the life expectancy of such patients is reduced and most of them are in special boarding schools for the mentally retarded for life.
Prevention of microcephaly in children involves careful planning of pregnancy, examination for infections, and antenatal protection of the fetus. Early intrauterine detection of microcephaly is grounds for deciding on an artificial termination of pregnancy. Medical genetic counseling of families with children with microcephaly is necessary to assess the potential risk in subsequent pregnancies.
