Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Based Evaluation of Pediatric Patients With Developmental Delay: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background Developmental delay refers to the insufficient acquisition of age-appropriate developmental milestones. According to World Health Organization, approximately 5% of all children under the age of 14 years display some developmental disability. Aim and objective Our objective was to investigate the prevalence of abnormal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain findings in pediatric patients with non-syndromic developmental delay and to establish the utility of MRI for the same. Material and Method This cross-sectional study prospectively enrolled 60 pediatric patients (three months to 12 years) and data were analyzed using SPSS software. Result Abnormalities on MRI were seen in 80% of cases, with findings indicating perinatal hypoxic insult (36.67%) being the most common, followed by structural abnormalities of the brain (20%). There was no significant difference in the prevalence of abnormal findings when classified by gender or age, or between global developmental delay (GDD) alone and GDD with epilepsy. However, perinatal hypoxic insult was significantly associated with GDD with epilepsy rather than GDD alone (p < 0.01). Conclusion In this study, brain MRI provides a high yield of abnormal findings and helps calculate the relative prevalence of various common etiologies in non-syndromic developmental delay. This study supports several international guidelines that include MRI as the first-line investigation for non-syndromic developmental delay.