BMJ  2004;328:581-582 (6 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7439.581-b

Letter

Ionising radiation in infancy and adult cognitive function

Radiation may not solely explain later cognitive function

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Hall et al did not give a detailed description of the patients they studied; the boys had cutaneous haemangiomas in the head region, and they were in 1930-59 younger than 18 months.1

How many of these boys had Sturge-Weber syndrome with cutaneous and cerebral haemangiomas? In a typical case the cutaneous lesions are in the territory of the trigeminal nerve and the cerebral in the hemispheral cortex of the same side, but there are many variations. The neurological symptoms, if present, include epileptic seizures, hemiparesis, and some mental retardation. Cortical calcifications may be seen on skull radiography.

Possible cortical haemangioma was not diagnosed at the time of radiation. In 1930-59 none of the current neuroradiological examinations was available, and skull radiography, if performed, was of little help because cortical calcifications are rare at such a young age.

The study found an inverse association between the estimated radiation dose . . . [Full text of this article]

Rainer Fogelholm, neurologist (retired)

Pappilantie 10 B 8, 02400 Kirkkonummi, Finland r.fogel@kolumbus.fi


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Relevant Article

Effect of low doses of ionising radiation in infancy on cognitive function in adulthood: Swedish population based cohort study
Per Hall, Hans-Olov Adami, Dimitrios Trichopoulos, Nancy L Pedersen, Pagona Lagiou, Anders Ekbom, Martin Ingvar, Marie Lundell, and Fredrik Granath
BMJ 2004 328: 19. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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