Children's Hemiplegia and Stroke Association

Dr. Yvonne Wu to receive CHASA Research Award

May 6, 2006 - Dr. Yvonne Wu received a $5,000 research award this month from the Children's Hemiplegia and Stroke Association to support her research which is dedicated to learning more about the genetic contributions to perinatal stroke.

Dr. Wu received her undergraduate degree from Yale University, her medical degree from Harvard Medical school, and her post graduate degree in Epidemiology from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the UCSF School of Medicine and is Director of Child Neurology Residency at UCSF.

Dr. Wu completed the first population-based controlled study of risk factors for perinatal stroke. This study, published in 2005, identified seven risk factors for perinatal stroke, including a maternal history of infertility, pre-eclampsia, and chorioamnionitis. Several labor complications were also predictive of perinatal stroke, including fetal heart rate abnormalities, emergent cesarean delivery and prolonged second stage of labor.

In a study of congenital hemiplegia conducted among a large birth population, Wu and investigators found that perinatal stroke is the most common neuroimaging abnormality noted in term infants. Of note was that infants with congenital hemiplegia are four times more likely to have suffered a perinatal stroke if their weakness is located on the right side, and if the weakness is moderate to sever in nature. Infants with congenital hemiparesis and a normal head imaging study are more likely to outgrow all signs of hemiparesis by age three than are infants who have an abnormal brain imaging study.

Dr. Wu is currently expanding her work to study the genetic contributions to perinatal stroke. The risk factors that were identified in her pervious study suggest a possible role for placental thromobosis in the pathogenesis of perinatal stroke. Clinical studies have also suggested that genetic polymorphisms involved in the clotting system may be associated with increased risk of perinatal stroke.

Dr. Wu and her associates continue to identify cases of perinatal stroke in their patient population and have recently doubled the size of their study population. With this larger group of patients, they plan to embark on a genetic study that will determine whether specific genetic polymorphisms increase the risk of perinatal stroke. The funds donated by the Children's Hemiplegia and Stroke Association (CHASA) will be valuable to these efforts and will be used to compile preliminary data that will be used to obtain further National Institute of Health support for this study.

Only by gaining a better understanding of the risk factors and pathogenesis of perinatal stroke can researchers develop new preventative and treatment measures for this important cause of hemiplegic cerebral palsy.

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