Exclusion of progressive brain disorders of childhood for a cerebral palsy monitoring system: a public health perspective.

BACKGROUND: Cerebral palsy (CP) is defined by its nonprogressive features. Therefore, a standard definition and list of progressive disorders to exclude would be useful for CP monitoring and epidemiologic studies.
METHODS: We reviewed the literature on this topic to 1) develop selection criteria for progressive brain disorders of childhood for public health surveillance purposes, 2) identify categories of disorders likely to include individual conditions that are progressive, and 3) ascertain information about the relative frequency and natural history of candidate disorders.
RESULTS: Based on 19 criteria that we developed, we ascertained a total of 104 progressive brain disorders of childhood, almost all of which were Mendelian disorders. DISCUSSION: Our list is meant for CP surveillance programs and does not represent a complete catalog of progressive genetic conditions, nor is the list meant to comprehensively characterize disorders that might be mistaken for cerebral palsy. The criteria for progressive disorders that we developed could be applied by public health investigators in the future, as more children with very rare conditions are followed and new candidate disorders are identified.