Diagnosis and differential diagnosis of central nervous system demyelination in children / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Central nervous system demyelination in children include acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM),multiple sclerosis (MS),optic neuritis(ON),transverse myelitis(TM),neuromyelitis optica(NMO).Most of these conditions are thought to be caused by immune -mediated demyelination triggered by an infectious agent in a ge-netically susceptible host.There are certain differences,including clinical features and imaging features,for these condi-tions.With the possible exception of the NMO -IgG autoantibody found in NMO,there are no disease -specific biomar-kers for these conditions,making it difficult to distinguish among them at the time of the initial presentation.However, certain clinical features,laboratory results,and imaging findings can usually lead to the correct diagnosis.MS is to a large extent still a diagnosis of exclusion,and therefore requires intense investigation for other conditions that might present in a similar manner.