Post-transfusion hypertension, convulsion and intracranial haemorrhage in beta-thalassemia major

The haematologic disorder beta-thalassemia major is common in Pakistan. We describe a patient with undiagnosed thalassemia presenting with hypertension and convulsions and found to have cerebral haemorrhage on neuro-imaging. He had been transfused 2 weeks before this illness. Our experience is similar to a few case reports described in literature that were found to have cerebral haemorrhages post-mortem after a similar clinical presentation. All patients had a blood transfusion within 2 weeks prior to the presentation so association with transfusion has been proposed. We have reviewed the several mechanisms presented and discussed the findings

Acute transverse myelitis in children

A case of Acute Transverse Myelitis [ATM] is presented. ATM is a rare disease in childhood. The diagnosis stems from the clinical presentation, cerebrospinal fluid findings, appearance of the spinal cord on imaging and ruling out differential diagnoses like Guillain-Barre syndrome [GBS] and Poliomyelitis. The proposed treatment is intravenous [IV] methyl prednisolone with variable chances of recovery. A controlled multicenter study is suggested to assess epidemiology, etiology and prognosis of ATM