The aim of this study was to compare cranial Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging findings in cerebral palsy (CP) patients with clinical findings and evaluate damage ascribed to prenatal, natal and postnatal reasons by preterm, term or postterm characteristics. One thousand, one hundred CP patients registered at Dr. Ayten Bozkaya State Hospital of Cerebral Palsy Children and Rehabilitation Center from 2007 to 2010 were included in the study retrospectively. Cranial MR images studied in Bursa State Hospital Radiology Unit were evaluated by `a single senior MRI radiologist`. The most common abnormality was cerebral atrophy (80.2%) followed by periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) (49.9%). The most common type was spastic tetraplegia (67.9%), and the second most common type was hypotonic CP (15.6%). The percentage of congenital central nervous system (CNS) abnormality was 14.09%. The most common abnormality was corpus callosum (CC) agenesis and colpocephaly (2.3%). The least common conditions were cortical dysplasia, heterotopia and rhombencephalosynapsis. The percentage of cases born to consanguineous parents was 19.2%. In Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) patients born to consanguineous parents, PVL was cystic and moderate. Consanguineous marriage was statistically significant in the patients with cortical dysplasia and heterotopia (p < 0.04), delay in myelination (p < 0.001) and thalamus involvement (p < 0.008). Consanguineous marriage was also statistically significant in spastic diparetic (p < 0.017), hypotonic (p < 0.001) and bedridden patients (p < 0.006). The presence of both congenital CNS anomaly and PVL was only revealed in spastic tetraparetic type. Twentynine% of the cases were premature, while 66.4% were term children. Low birth weight (32.7%) constituted a risk factor for all clinical types, except mixed type CP. The percentage of patients with natal causes only was 21.5%. Kernicterus, cerebrovascular causes and HIE accounted for 6.3%, 2.9% and 54.4% of the cases, respectively. This study may indicate the importance of consanguineous marriage, natal and postnatal care properties as the underlying causes of CP beyond the clinical management related to delivery and allow us to identify strategies for possible measures.

Keywords: cerebral palsy, congenital CNS abnormality, consanguineous parents, cranial Magnetic Resonance Imaging