Severity of dysarthric speech in children with infantile cerebral palsy in correlation with the brain CT and MRI.

PURPOSE Dysarthria is a sequel of reduced motor functions and refers to the sound aspect of the language. In children suffering from cerebral palsy, CT (computer tomography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) examinations provide data on the relationship between the range of structural changes detected by neuroimaging investigations and the severity of motor dysfunction. The aim of study was to assess the severity of dysarthria in children with cerebral palsy in correlation with the pattern of morphological changes revealed on CT and MRI. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study involved 48 children with the pyramidal form of infantile cerebral palsy aged 3-15 years, treated in the Department of Pediatric Neurology and Rehabilitation in Białystok. All the patients underwent CT examination, 29 of them also had MRI. Severity of speech dysfunction was established based on "Dysarthria profile" by Robertson. The degree of damage severity in the respective brain structures was determined according to the scale Kraegeloh-Mann. Statistical analysis was performed using % calculations, the arithmetic mean, standard deviation, the chi-square test of independence or t-Student test to compare the means of two samples. RESULTS Significant differences were shown in dysarthria severity depending on lesions seen on CT and their intensity revealed by MRI, which were found to correlate positively with the severity of articulation disorders. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that CT and MRI are useful for predicting prognosis of severity of speech disturbances in children and for early programming of the therapeutic process.