Measurement of balance in survivors of XXXX in childhood.

@entity1 @entity981
Survivors of @entity981 ( @entity981 ) in childhood have been identified with balance problems. The goals of this study were to objectively quantify these observations by measuring the displacement and velocity of the body centre of pressure, a measure of 'sway'. The subjects included 79 @entity981 survivors who were at least 1 year post-treatment for @entity981 and 83 age-matched controls. Testing was carried out using various static balance tests designed to challenge central nervous system maintenance of balance and postural control. @entity1 were different from controls, across all age groups, in the more difficult task in which they were required to balance over a narrow base of support. However this did not reach statistical significance. When they were asked to perform this task with their eyes closed 32% of the @entity1 tested, as opposed to 2% of controls, were unable to complete the task (significant at P<0.01, chi(2)). The youngest group of @entity1 ( @entity1 aged 5-7 years) presented consistently with lower (or similar) displacement and lower velocity measures. This phenomenon has been observed in healthy @entity1 , however, in @entity1 , these trends were magnified and beyond the normal age range in healthy @entity1 . The velocity values were significantly different from the other @entity1 groups (normalized values for velocity; P<0.01). These observations then manifested as higher sway values when @entity1 were challenged with a difficult task with their eyes closed. We propose that survivors of childhood @entity981 have delayed motor development compared to age-matched controls giving rise to impairment in balance and postural control. It is possible that these impairments are a consequence of intensive multi-agent chemotherapy and cranial irradiation.
