[Report of a patient with behavioral disturbance and personality change due to herpetic encephalitis]

Herpetic encephalitis is associated with neurocognitive dysfunctions. Personality change and behavioral disturbances have been reported in 40 to 60 percents of patients with herpetic encephalitis. The present article reports a case with remitted encephalitis that manifests some behavioral changes and neuropsychological defects. A 17 year old boy became impulsive, aggressive, and restless and manifested stereotypical behavior after recovery from herpetic encephalitis. His symptoms lead to loss of function and several admissions in psychiatric wards due to his uncontrollable aggression. Brain imaging by MRI showed frontotemporal atrophy. There are some epileptiform discharge in patient's Electroencephalogram and patient showed learning disability and intellectual functions. The patient showed encephalitis associated personality change, behavioral disturbances and intellectual disabilities. Follow up studies with greater sample size can give more information about post encephalitis neuropsychiatric complications

Bacteriological evaluation for diagnosis of tuberculosis in children

During the last decade of the 20th century, the number of new cases of tuberculosis [TB] in children increased worldwide. Pulmonary TB in adults is diagnosed by isolation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis .In children; the diagnosis is based on diagnostic criteria and characteristics of the disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate bacteriological specimens from children with TB hospitalized in the pediatric tuberculosis ward of Masih Daneshvari Hospital. We assessed the results of smears, cultures and polymerase chain reaction [PCR] of gastric aspirates for confirmation of clinical findings. A descriptive study was performed on126 medical records of children with TB during a 5-year period. Demographic data including age and gender, pulmonary and extra-pulmonary TB presentations and gastric washing smear, culture and PCR were collected and then analyzed by SPSS software. The study patients were divided into three groups of age: 0-5 yrs, 6-10 yrs and 11-15 yrs. The highest frequency [68.3%] was observed in the 11-15 years age group; 47.6% of the patients were males and 52.4% were females. The tuberculin skin test was positive in 73% of patients. Gastric aspirate smears, culture and PCR were positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 55.6%, 58.7% and 53.2% of cases, respectively. Computed tomography [CT] scan showed evidence of TB in 94.4% of patients. In 34 patients, chest x-ray was normal and TB was diagnosed via CT-scan of the lung. The present study suggests that gastric lavage smears and cultures have high diagnostic value in TB diagnosis in children. In addition, chest CT-scan is recommended for diagnosis of TB in suspected children when other evaluations are normal