Clinical analysis of 25 children with mild encephalitis/encephalopathy with a reversible splenial lesion / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To discuss the clinical manifestations,imaging features and prognosis of children with mild encephalitis/encephalopathy with a reversible splenial lesion(MERS).Methods Twenty-five patients with MERS admitted to Beijing Children′s Hospital,Capital Medical University,between November 2013 and March 2016 were enrolled and their clinical and imaging data were retrospectively analyzed.Ages of onset of these 25 cases were from 6 months to 13 years old.Because of different clinical manifestations in different onset ages,these 25 cases were divided into 2 groups≤6 years old group (20 cases),with the onset age of 6 months to 3 years and 9 months old(average 2 years and 2 months);>6 years old group(5 cases),with the onset age of 9 years 3 months to 13 years old (average 10 years and 10 months).Results Nineteen cases among the 25 patients had infection history before onset,including 10 cases of digestive tract infection(all were ≤6 years old children),9 cases of respiratory tract infection(6 children ≤6 years old and 3 children >6 years old).The main clinical manifestations included convulsion (18/25 cases,72.0%),fever (17/25 cases,68.0%),vomiting (11/25 cases,44.0%),and disturbance of consciousness (11/25 cases,44.0%).The main clinical manifestation of ≤6 years old group was convulsion (18/20 cases,90.0%),while the main clinical manifestations of the>6 years old group were fever(3/5 cases,60.0%),headache and dizziness(2/5 cases,40.0%),and none of the patients in >6 years old group had convulsion.Eight cases had liver function injury,myocardial enzymes increased in 10 cases,and hyponatremia occurred in 9 cases.Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed 21 cases were type Ⅰ MERS(only involving corpus callosum),and 4 cases of type Ⅱ MERS which involved corpus callosum as well as deep brain white matter,subcortical white matter (centrum semiovale).MRI lesions disappeared after 8-56 days (average 16.5 days) of anti-infection and reducing intracranial pressure treatment.Conclusion MERS is more common in ≤6 years old children,and digestive tract infection is common in ≤6 years old children,while respiratory tract infection is common in >6 years old children.The symptoms in children are mainly manifested as fever,convulsion,vomiting,conscious disturbance,and so on.Infection and hyponatremia are the main causes of MERS in children.MRI is the first choice of imaging examination methods.