A Case of Ullrich's Disease / 대한소아신경학회지

Ullrich's disease is a congenital muscular dystrophy clinically characterized by generalized muscle weakness, multiple contractures of the proximal joints, and hyperextensibility of the distal joints. All the patients develop rigidity of spine, often assoicated with scoliosis, failure to thrive, and early and severe respiratory involvement, irrespective of their levels of motor function. Intellectual development is normal. The biopsied muscles show dystrophies including remarkable variation in the fiber size, notably proliferated endomysial connective tissues, and a lot of degenerated and regenerated fibers. The expression of merosin and dytrophin is normal. Recent studies have demonstrated that collagen VI is deficient in the muscles of the patients with Ullrich's disease, and some result from recessive mutations of the collagen VIalpha 2 gene(COL6A2). And a marked reduction of fibronectin receptors in the extracellular matrix of skin and cultured fibroblasts of these patients is also reported. These results suggest that collagen VI deficiency may lead to the reduction of fibronectin receptors and that any abnormalities of cell adhesion may be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. A case of Ullrich's disease has not been reported yet in Korea. So, we describe a male patient with Ullrich's disease with a brief review of the literature.

A Role of Routine Lumbar Puncture in Children Presented with Their First Seizure with Fever / 대한소아신경학회지

PURPOSE: This study was performed to find out the role of routine lumbar puncture in children presented with their first seizure with Fever. METHODS: This study included 220 children, over a 5 year period, from April 1999 to March 2003, who visited or were admitted at Dae Dong Hospital with their first febrile convulsion. Lumbar puncture was performed in all children. We analyzed their age, family history, type of seizure, duration of seizure, cause of fever, and the results of lumbar puncture. RESULTS: In the sex distribution, males(58.6%) outnumbered females(41.4%) and the ratio was 1.2:1. 81.7% of the patients had febrile convulsion from 6 months- to 3 years of age(P<0.05). 30.5% also had family history of febrile convulsion. The types of seizure were generalized tonic-clonic(72.7%), generalized tonic(17.7%), and generalized clonic(6.4 %). For the duration of seizure, 90.4% of the patients were estimated less than 15 minutes(P<0.05). The causes of fever were pharyngotonsilitis(40.5%), gastroenteritis(19.1 %), pneumonia or bronchitis(13.2%), meningitis(11%), otitis media, urinary tract infection, and exanthem subitum. However, 9.1% of the patients were diagnosed meningitis, with 18 of 20 patients under 3 years of age. CONCLUSION: In the first seizure with fever, lumbar puncture is a useful method for meningitis, especially under 3 years of age.

Bile Peritonitis Due to Spontaneous Rupture of Choledochal Cyst iagnosed by Hepatobiliary Scintigraphy in an Infant / 대한소아소화기영양학회지

Choledochal cyst is a congenital anomaly with classic triad of abdominal pain, jaundice and right upper abdominal mass. Bile peritonitis caused by cyst rupture is relatively not rare in infancy. The mechanism of rupture must be epithelial irritation of the biliary tract by refluxed pancreatic juice caused by pancreatico-biliary malunion associated with mural immaturity in infancy, rather than an abnormal rise in ductal pressure or congenital mural weakness at a certain point. We experienced a case of bile peritonitis caused by spontanenous rupture of choledochal cyst in a 10-month-old girl presented with abdominal distension, persistent fever, diarrhea, irritability and intractable ascites. She was presumed as having bile peritonitis by bile colored ascitic fluid with elevated bilirubin level and diagnosis was made by 99mTc DISIDA hepatobiliary scan showing extrahepatic biliary leak. The perforated cyst was surgically removed and the biliary tree was reconstructed with a Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy.