Study Supports Diagnostic Methods to Differentiate Abuse in Children’s Head Injuries

A new study supports the methodology used to diagnose abusive head trauma in young children, using mathematical algorithms that eliminate researcher bias or circular reasoning. The study, “Traumatic Head Injury and the Diagnosis of Abuse: A Cluster Analysis,” published in the January 2022 Pediatrics (published online Dec. 13) will be helpful in assisting medical providers in hospital settings. Researchers analyzed data on 500 children under age 3 hospitalized between 2010 and 2013 across 18 pediatric intensive care units for management of brain injury. The data, provided by the Pediatric Brain Injury Research Network, was used to sort neurologically injured children using mathematical algorithms without reference to physicians’ diagnoses or pre-determined diagnostic criteria. The researchers found discernable sub-populations, which they then compared to existing abusive head trauma data, physicians’ diagnoses, and a proposed “triad” of findings. Case aspects suggesting abusive head trauma segregated with the algorithm generated sub-populations. By arriving at similar results through very different methods, the study validates prior literature, and should strengthen physician’s confidence in the current diagnostic paradigm, and their presentation of that paradigm in court.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.