[Clinico-pathogenetic correlations in intellectual deficiency in premature infants].

The comparison of 32 immature infants with mental retardation of various degree (based on the results of clinical, immunological and biochemical examinations) with full-term infants with analogous pathology showed in the former group a high incidence (82.8%) of cerebral antibodies to antigens of the homo- and heterological brain in the complement consumption test. Therapeutic measures helped to reduce neuroimmune changes while the presence of antibodies to the homologous brain remained stable. Using data on the excretion of vanillyl amygdalic and homovanillic acids, the authors established alterations in catecholamine catabolism as well as in the activity of serum amine oxidase, which depended on the degree of mental retardation. Changes in individual components of catecholamine metabolism were found to correlate with neuroimmune shifts. The data obtained point to the presence of changes in biogenic amine metabolism and in immunological processes in mentally retarded children, which are very likely to be caused by immaturity at birth.