Acquired peripheral neuropathy: a report on 20 children.

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an inflammatory polyneuropathy characterized by acute onset, rapid progression, symmetric muscular weakness, pain, and paresthesias. The incidence of GBS in the pediatric age group is 0.8 cases per 100,000; 50%-70% of the cases are preceded by respiratory or gastrointestinal infectious episodes or vaccination. The etiopathogenesis of GBS has been hypothesized to involve a direct immune-mediated mechanism against the peripheral nerves. A series of 20 patients managed in the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Catania between 2003 and 2011 and evaluated according to epidemiologic, clinical, and therapeutic features is reported.

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis: a case report.

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a progressive neurological disorder of childhood and early adolescence caused by persistent defective measles virus. Clinical manifestations appear many years after the acute measles infection. The incidence of SSPE has substantially declined after the introduction of an effective vaccine. We report a case of a child with SSPE that began with atonia, dysarthria, and intellectual deterioration without the presence of any particular EEG anomalies. We have reported this girl who was affected by this severe affliction in the hope that, because of the rarity of SSPE, it would not go undiagnosed.

Neuroimaging findings in malignant infantile osteopetrosis due to OSTM1 mutations.

Malignant infantile osteopetrosis (MIOP) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder of bone resorption characterized by early bone marrow failure, proneness to fractures, and visual deterioration, variably associated with impairments of other cranial nerves due to narrowing of skull base foramina. About 10% of patients with MIOP show severe neurological involvement, which contraindicates bone marrow transplantation. We report on a 12-month-old female with recessive OSMT1 mutations and neuroimaging findings suggesting a neurodegenerative storage disorder.

[Multiple arterial ischemic strokes in a child with moyamoya disease and Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection]. / Infarti cerebrali multipli in una paziente pediatrica con malattia di moyamoya e infezione da Micoplasma pneumoniae.

Moyamoya disease is a rare disorder characterised by a progressive occlusion or stenosis of the distal portions of bilateral internal carotid arteries with the development of a network of collateral vessels. Pediatric patients show transient ischemic attacks or strokes; diagnosis is made on the basis of clinical and radiographic findings. The case of a 2-year-old female, which after a Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection presented multiple cerebral strokes is reported. A diagnosis of moyamoya disease was made on the basis of neuroradiological findings; neurological complications due to Mycoplasma infection are reported and the relationship between disease and infection are discussed.