Imaging of Developmental Delay in Black African Children: A Hospital-based Study in Yaoundé-Cameroon

Background: The purpose of this study was to describe the anomalies observed on imaging for developmental delay in black African children.

Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study, which included children aged between 1 month to 6 years with developmental delay and had done a brain MRI and/or CT scan.

Results: We included 94 children, 60.6% of whom were males. The mean age was 32.5 ± 6.8 months. A history of perinatal asphyxia found in 55.3% of cases. According to the Denver developmental II scale, profound developmental delay observed in 35.1% of cases, and severe developmental delay in 25.5%. DD was isolated in 2.1% of cases and associated with cerebral palsy, pyramidal syndrome, and microcephaly in respectively 83%, 79.8%, and 46.8% of cases. Brain CT scan and MRI accounted for 85.1% and 14.9% respectively. The tests were abnormal in 78.7% of the cases, and cerebral atrophy was the preponderant anomaly (cortical atrophy = 80%, subcortical atrophy = 69.3%). Epileptic patients were 4 times more likely to have abnormal brain imaging (OR = 4.12 and p = 0.05),. We did not find a link between the severity of psychomotor delay and the presence of significant anomalies in imaging.

Conclusion: In our context, there is a high prevalence of organic anomalies in the imaging of psychomotor delay, which were dominated by cerebral atrophy secondary to hypoxic ischemic events.