Brain Malformations

In rural Africa, where 3-year-old Fabian Ndungu Githinji was born, his mother Maureen could feel the eyes of her neighbors on her when she held Fabian, and hear their whispers behind her back. It was obvious that Fabian was different, with his abnormally large head and delayed development. In her culture, many still believed that children with developmental disabilities were a bad omen or a curse.

Little Eric Miller* had a rough start in life. Struggling with severe acid reflux from the time he was just a few days old, he spent much of his first few months shuttling from one doctor to another, enduring countless X-rays, CT scans and other tests. Mom Brenda Baker*, desperate to relieve his discomfort, decided to keep him propped up as much as possible, even putting him in his car seat to sleep. She began to notice that his head seemed larger than normal and tilted to the right.

BALTIMORE - Physicians at Kennedy Krieger Institute and neuro-imaging experts at the Institute's F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging have developed a new way to see the white matter pathways, or "cables," that carry messages from one part of the brain to another in children with cerebral palsy. Already, the new technique has led to a better understanding of how disorders of the developing brain lead to cerebral palsy - which holds promise for better diagnosis and more effective treatment.