ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: In addition to epileptic seizures (ES), a variety of physiologic, organic and psychogenic disorders can manifest as paroxysmal behavioral events. Paroxysmal nonepileptic events (PNEs) are quite encountered in infants, young children, and adolescents. In a substantial proportion of cases, a careful history and examination will elucidate their nature. However, in other cases, it is necessary to differentiate PNEs from ES by video-electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring. We report our experiences with PNEs in a group of children and adolescents who underwent video-EEG monitoring. METHODS: From September, 2004 to June, 2006, one hundred thirty patients were monitored in the Pediatric Epilepsy Monitoring Units of Korea University Guro and Ansan hospitals. Their hospital charts were reviewed and video records of these events were analyzed. We observed all patients after video- EEG monitoring for more than 3 months. RESULTS: Typical spells occurred during monitoring in 33 patients, not associated with a seizure pattern on EEG recordings. Two patients were diagnosed as frontal lobe epilepsy on basis of typical semiology and clinical characteristics, so 31 patients were documented to have PNEs finally. The mean age of patients was 7.2+/-5.8 years. The male to female ratio was 15 (48.4%) to 16 (51.6%). Among 31 patients, fifteen patients had associated disorders such as epilepsy, developmental delay, cerebral palsy, gastric ulcer, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or depressive disorder. Somatoform disorder and factitious disorder was frequently seen in children more than 5 years old (P0.05). CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that video-EEG monitoring is an important diagnostic tool in the evaluation of paroxysmal behavioral events. With correct diagnosis of the PNEs, several unnecessary treatment could be avoided.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Child , Female , Humans , Infant , Male , Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity , Cerebral Palsy , Depressive Disorder , Electroencephalography , Epilepsy , Epilepsy, Frontal Lobe , Korea , Seizures , Somatoform Disorders , Stomach UlcerABSTRACT
A 3-year-old girl presented with polydipsia, polyuria, hyponatremia, hypertension and congestive heart failure. Her polyuria was unresponsive to water restriction and vasopressin challenge tests, and her blood pressure was not effectively controlled by antihypertensive drugs. Radiologic examinations revealed a Wilms' tumor in the right kidney. Her plasma renin activity and aldosterone concentration were greatly increased. After surgical removal of the tumor, the congestive heart failure disappeared. Congestive heart failure due to Wilms' tumor is very rare and we report here on such a case, with a brief review of the literature.
Subject(s)
Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Aldosterone , Antihypertensive Agents , Blood Pressure , Estrogens, Conjugated (USP) , Heart Failure , Hypertension , Hyponatremia , Kidney , Plasma , Polydipsia , Polyuria , Renin , Vasopressins , Water , Wilms TumorABSTRACT
According to the recently published reports about mitochondrial diseasbl the clinical manifestations are more various than expected. There have been no clinical studies covering whole spectrum of mitochond7iral disease except a few case reports in our country. The authors performed this studies to understand the various clinical and laboratory findings of mitochondrial disease and the usefulness of current tools for the diagnosis of mitochondrial diseases. We reviewed retrospectively the clinical, laboratory and pathologic findings of mitochondrial disease. The diagnosis of mitochondrial disease was based on clinical manifestations, 'ragged-red fiber' in Gomori stainging, and/or abnormal mitochondrial morphologies on electron microscopy. Twenty one patients were diagnosed as mitochondrial disease. Their clinical diagnosis included 7 MELAS (mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes); 3 MERRF (myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibers); 2 KSS (Kearns-Sayre syndrome); 7 CPEO (chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia); and 2 mitochondrial myopathy. The usefulness of electrodiagnostic studies, such as EMG, NCV and FEG, were limited in some patients. The muscle biopsy showed ragged red fibers in 10 of 15 sampled examined. Eleven patients had abnormal serum lactic acid level. The authors found that the mitochondrial disease revealed broad clinical spectrum and clinically available diagnostic tests, such as serum lactate and light microscopic examination showed limited value. Therefore, to evaluate the mitochondrial dysfunction with systemic involvement may be desirable to depend on sensitive and specific methods including succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) staining, electron microscopy and biologic studies of mitochondrial DNA.