ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the findings on neurologic evaluation at hospital discharge and neurologic and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) evaluations at age 1 year of subjects enrolled in the Boston Circulatory Arrest Study. Since a substantial number of children had neurologic abnormalities that were not associated with assignment to the circulatory arrest or low-flow groups, other risk factors for neurologic examination abnormalities were sought. In univariate analyses, limited to infants with definitely abnormal or normal findings, several risk factors appeared to be significant predictors for neurologic abnormality at hospital discharge. Interestingly, preoperative neurologic status appeared to be the most important clinical predictor of postoperative neurologic abnormality. The structural correlates of the type of operative support and abnormalities were investigated by performance of cranial MRI when the children were 1 year old. Neurologic abnormalities appear to be more strongly associated with assignment to the circulatory arrest strategy and to circulatory arrest duration at the one year assessment than in the perioperative period.
