A Presumed Case of Multiple Sclerosis at 4-year-old Age

ABSTRACT

A child, aged 4-year-old girl was admitted to our hospital because of impaired vision and right hemiparesis. Brain MRI showed a lesion in the left parietal white matter, and visual evoked potentials and brainstem evoked potentials gave abnormal findings showing lesions also of the optic nerves and brainstem. Her symptoms were resolved with steroid therapy. Afterwards, she had 3 episodes of spastic paraparesis, cerebellar syndrome, downbeat nystagmus, and clinical seizures for a year. With a history of remissions and exacerbations and brain MRls that revealed new scattered lesions each time, the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis was able to be made. This is the one of the youngest of known patients with MS, yet described, in Korea, whose first attack occurred at 4 years old of age.