Computed tomographic (CT) brain scans of patients with subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy (SNE) may reveal focal lesions that correspond to sites of anatomic involvement of the disease. Three patients with SNE were followed with serial CT brain scans. In two patients radiographic abnormalities appeared well after the onset of clinical symptoms. In all three patients the radiographic lesions changed with time. This variability seen with serial scanning is an important feature of SNE.

Brain↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Outcome of brain abscess treatment in children: reduced morbidity with neuroimaging.

Records were reviewed of 17 patients, ages 4 months to 18 years, who had been diagnosed as having brain abscesses between 1975-1984. Serial computed tomography was used to guide treatment; consequently, 8 patients were managed medically and 9 received surgical intervention. All medically treated patients were free of neurologic residua upon subsequent examination. Positive identification of organisms from systemic cultures and close computed tomographic monitoring prevented the need for surgical intervention in these patients. The surgically treated patients were sicker at presentation, and of the 9 patients requiring surgical intervention, 4 had neurologic sequelae and 1 patient died. Brain abscess aspiration or excision revealed organisms in 7 of the 9 surgically treated patients. The reduction in morbidity and mortality was due in part to early recognition and monitoring of abscess size with contrast-enhanced computed tomography and avoidance of surgical excision of the abscess.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Use of botulinum toxin to treat blepharospasm in a 16-year-old with a dystonic syndrome.

A 16-year-old boy with generalized dystonia had continuous, severe blepharospasm and facial grimacing. Local intradermal injections of botulinum A toxin greatly reduced the spasms and improved function. No side effects were observed. Local botulinum A toxin injections may be useful in the treatment of eyelid and facial spasms in patients with generalized dystonias.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Mitochondrial disorders: analysis of their clinical and imaging characteristics.

PURPOSE: Investigation of the clinical, imaging, and in vivo MR spectroscopy (MRS) characteristics of disorders of mitochondrial function. METHODS: Clinical, imaging (five CT and 20 MR examinations), and MRS (six studies in five patients) findings in 19 patients with mitochondrial disorders were retrospectively reviewed. Results were critically analyzed and, when applicable, compared with results in the literature. RESULTS: Patients included four with mitochondrial encephalopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes (MELAS), two with myoclonus, epilepsy, and ragged red fibers (MERRF), two with Kearns-Sayre syndrome, seven with Leigh syndrome, one with progressive cerebral poliodystrophy (Alpers syndrome), and three with trichopoliodystrophy (Menkes disease). MELAS, MERRF, and Kearns-Sayre tended to occur in older children and adults, whereas Leigh syndrome, Alpers syndrome, and Menkes disease occurred in infants and young children. All diseases involved gray matter early in their course, manifest primarily as T2 prolongation, with the deep cerebral nuclei being involved more often than the cerebral cortex. When T2 prolongation was seen in the white matter (MELAS, MERRF, Kearns-Sayre, Leigh), the peripheral and retrotrigonal white matter showed early involvement. Patients with Menkes disease showed rapidly progressive atrophy accompanied by large subdural hematomas. Proton MRS showed an elevated lactate level in involved regions of the brain; the lactate peak disappeared in old areas of T2 prolongation. CONCLUSIONS: Mitochondrial disorders have a wide range of both clinical and imaging findings. Although no one set of findings is diagnostic of these disorders, the combination of deep gray matter involvement and peripheral white matter involvement in young adults or children should suggest the diagnosis, especially when associated with an elevated lactate level on proton MRS.

Adolescent↗