Magnetic resonance imaging confirms periventricular venous infarction in a term-born child with congenital hemiplegia.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of a 5-day-old female born at term with congenital leftsided hemiplegia revealed T2 shortening and T2* signal dropout lining the lateral wall of a focally enlarged right lateral ventricle, reflecting the deposition of haemosiderin or ferritin derived from periventricular venous infarction in utero. This observation strengthens the hypothesis that congenital hemiplegia in children born at term can result from a clinically silent periventricular venous infarction in utero. The loss of shortening of T2 in the right posterior limb of the internal capsule at birth was followed by prolongation of T2 at 1 year. It is important to evaluate the asymmetry of the posterior limb shown by MRI to predict future hemiplegia and enable early therapy.