Sonographic diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhage and periventricular leukomalacia in premature African neonates.

Transfontanelle ultrasound (US) was done prospectively and analyzed for intra-cranial hemorrhage (ICH) and periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) in 110 premature infants. The babies were divided into two subgroups according to their birth weights (BW): those with BW of 1500 g or less (n = 93) belonged to subgroup A while babies of BW between 1500 and 2500 g (n = 17) were placed in subgroup B. Overall incidence of ICH and PVL was 24.5 and 26.4%, respectively in the 110 cases studied. Under subgroup A, 26/93 (28.0%) cases had ICH while 22/93 (23.7%) cases had PVL. In subgroup B, 2/17 (11.8%) cases had ICH while PVL was noted in 7/17 (41.2%) cases. These results show that premature African children have a lower incidence of ICH but a higher incidence of PVL compared to babies from temperate regions. Genetic and environmental factors are probably responsible for these variations in the occurrence of both diseases in population groups from different geographical locations.