Narcolepsy and cataplexy: a pediatric case report.

Narcolepsy is characterized by excessive sleepiness, cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, and sleep paralysis during the rapid eye movement period of sleep. Herein, we present a boy aged eight years who was diagnosed as having narcolepsy and cataplexy about thirteen months after his first presentation. He was admitted with symptoms of daytime sleepiness. In the follow-up, cataplexy in the form of head dropping attacks developed seven months after the first admission. The patient was investigated for different prediagnoses and was eventually diagnosed as having narcolepsy and cataplexy through polysomnography and multiple sleep latency tests thirteen months after the first presentation. He is being followed up and is under drug therapy; his symptoms have improved substantially.

Neuromyelitis optica mimics the morphology of spinal cord tumors.

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system, that predominantly affects the spinal cord and the optic nerve. Its key features include transverse myelitis, commonly associated with extensive inflammation spanning three or more consecutive vertebral segments. Longitudinal extensive spinal cord lesions can also occur in systemic autoimmune diseases, infections, vascular and metabolic disorders, subsequent to irradiation, intramedullary tumors and paraneoplastic myelopathies. We present a case study of an 8-year-old girl seropositive for antibodies against the aquaporin 4 who displayed longitudinal extensive spinal cord lesions, that was initially misdiagnosed as an intramedullary tumor.

Congenital segmental spinal muscular atrophy: a case report.

Spinal muscular atrophies are genetic disorders in which anterior horn cells in the spinal cord and motor nuclei of the brainstem are progressively lost. We present a patient with arthrogryposis due to congenital spinal muscular atrophy predominantly affecting the upper limbs. Spinal muscular atrophies with onset at birth may be a cause of arthrogryposis. Localized forms of neurogenic arthrogryposis have been divided into cervical and caudal forms. Our case is similar to the cases described by Hageman et al (J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1993;56:365-368): severe symmetric lower motor neuron deficit in the upper extremities at the time of birth, no history of injury to the cervical spinal cord or the brachial plexus during delivery, and severe muscle wasting suggesting chronic denervation in utero. Because there was improvement of our patient's situation, her disease was also possibly nonprogressive and sporadic. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a Turkish patient with congenital cervical spinal muscular atrophy. Congenital cervical spinal muscular atrophy affecting predominantly the upper limbs is a relatively rare form of motor neuron disease and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of infants with congenital contractures and severe muscle weakness by wasting mainly confined to the upper limbs.

Tuberous sclerosis complex; single center experience.

AIM: This study was planned with the aim of retrospectively reviewing the clinical and laboratory findings and therapies of our patients diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis and redefining the patients according to the diagnostic criteria revised by the 2012 International Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Consensus Group and comparing them with the literature. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Twenty patients diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis complex in the Pediatric Neurology Clinic were examined retrospectively in terms of clinical findings and therapies. The diagnoses were compared again according to 1998 and 2012 criteria. RESULTS: It was observed that the complaint at presentation was seizure in 17 of 20 patients and hypopigmented spots on the skin in 3 of 20 patients. On the initial physical examination, findings related with the disease were found in the skin in 17 of the patients, in the eye in 5, in the kidneys in 7 and in the brain with imaging in 17. No cardiac involvement was observed in the patients. Infantile spasm was observed in 7 of the patients who presented because of seizure (n=17), partial seizure was observed in 7 and multiple seizure types were observed in 3. It was found that sirolimus treatment was given to 9 of 20 patients because of different reasons, 7 of these 9 patients had epileptic seizures and sirolimus treatment had no effect on epileptic seizures. According to 2012 diagnostic criteria, no marked change occured in the diagnoses of our patients. CONCLUSIONS: It was observed that the signs and symptoms of our patients were compatible with the literature. Molecular genetic examination was planned for the patients who were being followed up because of probable tuberous sclerosis complex. It was observed that sirolimus treatment had no marked effect on the seizure frequency of our patients.