Computed tomographic brain scanning in four neuropsychiatric disorders of childhood.

Abstract

CAT scans were performed in 66 patients with neuropsychiatric disorders of childhood (infantile autism, attention deficit disorder, Tourette's disorder, and language disorder) and a control group of 20 medical patients. Ventricular volume and brain density were determined by quantitative, computer-based methods by researchers blind to the patients' diagnoses. There were no significant differences among diagnostic groups or between neuropsychiatric patients and medical control patients in total ventricular volume, right-left ventricular volume ratio, ventricular asymmetries, ventricle-brain ratios, or brain density.