Cerebral palsy breakthrough allows early diagnosis

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By Mandie Sami

Australian researchers will present what they say is a breakthrough in the diagnosis and treatment of cerebral palsy to a conference in Vienna on Friday.

The new method allows doctors to identify the disability at birth, rather than waiting up to 19 months to begin treatment.

Some Australian hospitals are already using the the method and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance (CPA) has called for its introduction in clinics around the world.

Professor Iona Novak, head of research at CPA, says early diagnosis is crucial.

“We have the tools, but we haven’t put them into routine clinical practice and we must for infants’ well-being and for parent wellbeing,” she said.

“Because we know that late diagnosis doesn’t really help parents, they’re better to receive it early and actually find the best way to help the infant.

“The other things we’re going to be telling people is that there’s new, emergent data suggesting that [using] what we call motor learning approaches … is the best way to optimise the brain.

“If we use these early in cerebral palsy, we might have the possibility of reducing the severity of this condition.”

Professor Novak and CPA research fellow Cathy Morgan will present the new clinical guidelines on early intervention at the European Academy of Childhood Disability.

Ms Morgan says the general movements assessment is a big breakthrough in early intervention.

“So we know that around three months we can detect cerebral palsy with about 95 per cent accuracy,” she said.

“And, what we’ve been able to do is get all the neonatal units in Sydney [to] have staff trained in the use of this tool.

“It now means that babies at high risk can be screened using this tool and we can find, from all these babies who are sick, we can pick out the ones that are most at risk of cerebral palsy and start the intervention early.

“And that’s a really, really big step forward.”

Child born with CP every 15 hours in Australia, expert says

Cerebral palsy is the most common physical disability in childhood. It affects muscle tone, movement, and motor skills.

According to Ms Morgan, a large proportion of patients have problems with feeding and language and nearly half will have an intellectual impairment.

“One of the biggest problems is that many of them experience pain,” she said.

She says every 15 hours, an Australian child is born with cerebral palsy.

Despite this, not a lot is known about how it works and why some people are affected and not others – there is currently no cure.

Hassan Chahrouk’s three-year-old son, Abdul, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth. That in itself was unheard of three years ago.

Until then, cerebral palsy was not diagnosed until an average age of 19 months.

Mr Chahrouk says information on cerebral palsy can be hard to find.

“We’ve never had any manuals, no books, no nothing to read up on,” he said.

“Hectic! Really full on, you know? Full on. You’ve got to keep your eyes on him 24/7.

“He wasn’t walking and now he is. Well, next step is probably the speech and eating.”