Clinical manifestations in children and adolescents with corpus callosum abnormalities.

Corpus callosum abnormality (CCA) outcomes are quite unpredictable and variable, from asymptomatic forms to mild or severe neurodevelopment disorders. The aim of this study was to examine clinical outcomes in CCA patients. The study included 61 children and adolescents in whom brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans showed CCA, isolated or associated to other central nervous system lesions. All patients underwent anamnesis, physical and neurological examination, routine laboratory tests, electroencephalogram (EEG), and MRI scans. In all participants, the intelligence quotient (IQ) was determined. We divided the participants into two subgroups: the first subgroup included patients with an isolated CCA, and the second subgroup included patients with CCA associated with extra-callosal brain lesions (complex CCA). We found that CCA were associated with elevated frequency to intellectual disability (ID), other neurodevelopment disorders, epilepsy, and isolated EEG anomalies. Mild ID (p = 0.003) was more frequent in the isolated subgroup, while epilepsy (p = 0.036) and pre-perinatal risk factors (p = 0.023) were more frequent in the complex CCA subgroup. Although the role of the CC in the interhemispheric communication is known, neurological and neurodevelopment outcomes of CCA are extremely variable and unpredictable. The presence of extra-callosal brain anomalies is one of the major prognostic factor, and probably, they have an important impact on the clinical outcome.

Aggressive Behaviors and Verbal Communication Skills in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Aggressive behavior is a common problem among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and could negatively affect family functioning and school and social competence. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between aggressive behavior, such as self-aggression and other-aggression, with verbal communication ability and IQ level in children with ASD. The sample examined in this study included 88 children with a diagnosis of ASD. For the purposes of our study, much attention was focused on individual items of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule and the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised that were useful to evaluate the aggressive behavior. We have not found any association between aggressive behavior (other-aggression and self-aggression) and the absence of language or low IQ in children with ASD. Thus, the degree of severity of autism is probably the most important risk factor for this behavior.

Circulating anti-brain autoantibodies in schizophrenia and mood disorders.

In recent years, an inflammatory autoimmune process, autoantibodies mediated, has been porposed as having a role in the development of different psychiatric disorders. The aim of this study was to assay organ-specific and non organ-specific circulating autoantibodies in schizophrenia, mood disorders and healthy controls; among organ-specific autoantibodies we focused on different fluorescence patterns of anti-brain autoantibodies against rat and monkey's sections of hippocampus, hypothalamus and cerebellum. Serum samples from 50 acutelly ill patients (30 schizophrenia and 20 mood disorders) and from 20 healthy controls were collected. Autoantibodies were assayed by indirect immunofluorescence, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and chemiluminescence immunoassay. We found a significant difference for circulating autoantibodies to hypothalamus, hippocampus and cerebellum and for anti-nuclear autoantibodies in both schizophrenia and mood disorders when compared to the control group. Referring to the two groups of patients only, circulating antibodies anti-hypothalamus were found significant higher in mood disorders rather than in schizophrenia, with specific regard to nuclear and cytoplasmic staining of the neurons. These data suggest an aspecific diffuse brain involvement of anti-brain autoantibodies in acute phases of schizophrenia and mood disorders. The greater involvement of the hypothalamus in mood disorders highlights the close relationship between autoimmunity, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and affective disorders.

Markers of neurodevelopmental impairments in early-onset psychosis.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the association between the clinical and neurobiological markers of neurodevelopmental impairments and early-onset schizophrenia spectrum psychosis. METHODS: A sample of 36 patients with early-onset schizophrenia spectrum psychosis was compared to a control sample of 36 patients with migraine. We assessed early childhood neurodevelopmental milestones using a modified version of the General Developmental Scale, general intellectual ability using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised or Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised for patients with speech and language abnormalities, and neurological soft signs with specific regard to subtle motor impairment. RESULTS: Subjects with early-onset psychosis had a higher rate of impaired social development (P=0.001), learning difficulties (P=0.04), enuresis (P=0.0008), a lower intelligence quotient (P<0.001), and subtle motor impairments (P=0.005) than control subjects. CONCLUSION: We suggest that neurodevelopment in early-onset psychosis is characterized by a global impairment of functional and adaptive skills that manifests from early childhood, rather than a delay or limitation in language and motor development. The current evidence is based on a small sample and should be investigated in larger samples in future research.

Cerebral venous thrombosis after lumbar puncture and intravenous high dose corticosteroids: a case report of a childhood multiple sclerosis.

The association between cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) and multiple sclerosis (MS) has already been reported in several adult patients with clinically definite MS, in a suspected relation to i.v. corticosteroids or previously performed lumbar puncture (LP). We are reporting a case, which is, to our knowledge, the first one concerning a child patient with a MS, who developed multiple CVT after LP and during high-dose i.v. corticosteroid. Our conclusions are that the sequence LP followed by high dose corticosteroids may be a contributory factor for the development of CVT when associated with other risk factors.

Mental retardation and epilepsy in patients with isolated cerebellar hypoplasia.

Congenital nonprogressive cerebellar ataxia includes a complex group of disorders with heterogeneous phenotypic and etiopathogenetic characteristics. Despite recent advances in the understanding of the role of the cerebellum in cognition and behavior, the opinion that the clinical presentation of congenital cerebellar diseases is principally linked to motor dysfunction is common. This is largely due to the lack of well-organized epidemiologic studies on the prevalence of nonmotor disturbances in cerebellar disease. The association between congenital cerebellar disease and epilepsy has rarely been described. We report clinical, neurophysiologic, neuroimaging, and neuropsychologic features in a group of 14 patients with congenital nonprogressive cerebellar ataxia associated with cerebellar hypoplasia, 5 of whom have familial disease, aiming to further a better knowledge of the prevalence of cognitive and/or emotional impairment and epilepsy. The results confirm that cerebellar hypoplasia predisposes individuals to psychomotor delay (71.4%) and cognitive impairment (85.7%). Moreover, the tendency toward abnormal electroencephalographic (EEG) findings (78.5%), associated in a minor percentage of cases with epilepsy (28.5%), is also evident in our study.