Head Circumference Is Correlated With Global Intelligence 7 Years After Neonatal Arterial Ischemic Stroke.

We read with great interest the article of Leong et al demonstrating that microcephaly is associated with poor developmental outcomes in children with perinatal ischemic stroke.

We hypothesized that head circumference is correlated with developmental outcomes at 7 years of age in our cohort of term-born children with neonatal arterial ischemic stroke (AVCnn Study; NCT02511249). Among the 73 children of the AVCnn cohort evaluated at 7 years of age, the full-scale Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was available for 70 children. Head circumference was measured as the largest occipitofrontal circumference with a nonstretchable tape measure. Full-scale IQ was evaluated using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition, as described. Statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism version 9.1.

A strong positive correlation was observed between the head circumference and the full-scale IQ, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.43 (95% confidence interval 0.21-0.60; P < .001) ( Figure 1 ). These results are in line with those found by Leong et al and confirm that head circumference is a pertinent biomarker of development in children with perinatal ischemic stroke.

Figure 1.

Head circumference and full-scale IQ at 7 years of age. (IQ, Intelligence Quotient.)