New doubts over shaken-baby evidence - New Scientist

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http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028124.900-new-doubts-over-shakenbaby-ev\

idence.html

WATER-FILLED cysts in the brain of a dead baby should not be taken as

proof that the infant has been shaken to death. New findings show that

cysts are also found in babies known to have died of innocent causes.

If the brain is starved of oxygen - because of a breathing problem or a

blood clot caused by trauma, for example - it will swell up. A study of

swollen brains in 20 babies who died aged 5 months or less showed that

the longer they had survived before dying, the more likely they were to

develop water-filled cysts between the cerebral cortex and the inner

regions of the brain.

" While these cysts may be seen as a consequence of trauma, they do not

appear to be due to mechanical tissue disruption, and may occur after

brain swelling from any cause, " says Waney Squier at the Radcliffe

Hospital in Oxford, UK (/Early Human Development/, DOI:

10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2011.03.003

<http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2011.03.003>).

Squier's team suggests that the cysts arise because the brains of young

babies have yet to fully develop the plumbing needed to drain excess

fluid....