SVIBOR - Project code: 3-01-157

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Project code: 3-01-157


THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS IN CHILDHOOD


Main researcher: KRIŽ, MLADEN (23652)


Assistants
Type of research: applied
Duration from: 01/01/91. to 12/31/95.
Papers on project (total): 40
Institution name: Medicinski fakultet, Rijeka (62)
Department/Institute: Dept. of Paediatrics, University of Rijeka
Address: Istarska 43/3
City: 51000 - Rijeka, Croatia
Communication
Phone: 385 (0)51 26-16-11
Fax: 385 (0)51 26-12-26
Summary: The results of a long-term study of some neurodevelopmental disorders in infancy and childhood can be sumarized as follows: The term "benign epilepsy" refers to those recurrent convulsive disorders whose natural course is predictable toward a definitive remission in at least 90 - 90% before reaching adulthood without leaving any residua which has stimulated the efforts to define better and more restrictively the particular epileptic syndromes of infancy and childhood, especially as regards the long-term prognosis and final outcome ("benign" and "severe" epilepsies and/or "functional" and "laesional" forms). The problem of BENIGN PSYCHOMOTOR EPILEPSY epilepsy was studied in a group of 111 epileptic children selected on the basis of specific restrictive criteria, which were longitudinally followed during a period of 3 - 10 yrs. Two clear-cut groups were identified: a group of 68 (65.4%) children with definitive remission and without any residua. The predictors of favourable outcome are as follows: normal mental development, normalisation of EEG records in a short period, "psychosensory" type of fits, normal neuropsychological tests, relative late onset (after 7 yrs) and normal CT or MR findings. A group of children with BENIGN EPILEPSY WITH OCCIPITAL PAROXYSMS was also investigated, and a preliminary results are very similiar to those mentioned above. ANIMAL EXPERIMENTAL MODELS (laboratory rats) for partial and generalized epilepsy were also developed in odrer to introduce and apply also some basic neurophysiological criteria in this study (The effects of the calcium channel blockers in chemically induced seizures in rats, "penicillin model" of epilepsy in rats, and intrahippocampal aplication of kainate for investigation of partial seizures with complex symptomatology). A long term analysis of 70 CHILDREN WITH HEAD TRAUMA was also performed. The most valuable predictors for the long-term outcome were: the need for arteficial ventilation, pupilary reactions, puls frequency, Glasgow coma scale, and respiration rate.

Keywords: Early brain damage, predictors, neuroontogenesis, clinical pathology

Research goals: The aims of the investigation is a better understanding ofthe natural history of developmental disorders of the centralnervous system (CNS), which are partly not yet clearly disolved,especially in the field of objectivization of maturationalparameters, and correlation with the specifity of the clinicalpatterns. The obtained results could help in the better understandingof: - developmental processes of CNS, - neonatal pathology of CNS, - pathogenesis of disorders during developmental age, - longitudinal survey of the natural history, diagnosis andtreatment of neurological disorders during infancy and childhood,and their late consequences (epilepsy, mental retardation,cerebral palsy and other forms of cerebral disfuncion), - application of methology of primary, secondary and tertiaryprevention, and objectivization of the direct posttraumaticdamage. The main task of this investigation is to contribute toobjective evaluation of degree of the maturational processes andtheir aberrant manifestations, and to better understanding theinfluence of the early brain damage, the evoultion and thenatural history of above mentioned disorders, keeping in mindthat some entities in childhood are more ontogeneticaly thanetiologically influenced and defined.

COOPERATION - INSTITUTIONS


  1. Name of institution: Universita di Trieste, Clinica pediatrica, Instituto per l'infanzia "Burlo Garofalo"
    Type of institution: University/Faculty
    Type of cooperation: Occasional exchange of experts
    City: 34100 - Trst, Italija

  2. Name of institution: Universitats Kinderklinik Rostock
    Type of institution: University/Faculty
    Type of cooperation: Joint project
    City: Rostock, Njemačka
Other information about the project.
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