Reversible splenial lesion syndrome in children with benign convulsions associated with mild gastroenteritis: A retrospective study of five cases.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical and imaging features of reversible splenial lesion syndrome (RESLES) with benign convulsions associated with mild gastroenteritis (CwG) in children. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical course, blood and stool examinations, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalography (EEG) findings, therapy and prognosis of five children with RESLES associated with CwG. RESULTS: Five previously healthy patients, four girls and one boy, with mean age 26.4 ±â€¯8.1 months, had clusters of general tonic-clonic or clonic seizures within the first two days of gastroenteritis. Rotavirus antigen was positive in the stool of one case. Interictal EEG was normal except in one case, which showed occipital slow wave. The initial MRI was performed within five days of onset, four patients had an isolated lesion in the splenium of the corpus callosum (SCC), and one patient had lesions extending outside the SCC that involved the genu of the corpus callosum. The follow-up MRI was performed 10-15 days after onset, and all lesions had completely disappeared. All patients were treated with antiviral, rehydration and anticonvulsant therapy in the acute phase. They had good prognosis and normal psychomotor development, with no neurological sequelae after 26-30 months of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: CwG and RESLES can coexist in young children. The patients present with clusters of general tonic-clonic or clonic seizures in the acute phase. Brain MRI shows focal lesion in the SCC with high signal intensity on T2-weighted and FLAIR sequences. It has good prognosis and excessive treatment is not necessary.

Radioprotective effects of serum thymic factor in mice.

Serum thymic factor (FTS) reduced mortality of mice after total-body irradiation with 7.56 Gy X rays. The radioprotective effect was achieved by daily repeated subcutaneous injections of 3-100 micrograms FTS, while doses higher than 300 micrograms/day/mouse were neither radioprotective nor toxic. Similarly, degeneration of the spleen was moderated by 3-100 micrograms FTS but not by 500 micrograms FTS in sublethally (3.78 Gy) irradiated mice. Histological examination showed that hematopoiesis was enhanced in the spleen by daily injections of 10 micrograms FTS. Spleen cells from the FTS-treated mice incorporated more [3H]thymidine in culture with or without concanavalin A. The treatment with FTS increased the production of colony-stimulating factor in the spleen as well as in peritoneal macrophage-like cells, and caused a significant increase in the number of granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming cells both in the spleen and in the femoral bone marrow. Furthermore, FTS prevented a decrease in circulating neutrophils in the sublethally irradiated mice. Prominent overshoot recovery of myelopoiesis, which occurred occasionally in sublethally irradiated mice, did not occur in the FTS-treated mice. The decrease in blood erythrocytes was also significantly reduced. These observations imply that this thymic hormone has potential as a radioprotector.