Acute necrotizing encephalopathy of childhood in non-Asian patients: report of three cases and literature review

J Child Neurol. 2006 Oct;21(10):872-9. doi: 10.1177/08830738060210101401.

Abstract

Acute necrotizing encephalopathy of childhood is a novel type of parainfectious encephalopathy with a racial and geographic predilection, rarely reported from other than East Asian areas. The objective was to describe the clinical, imaging, and other laboratory findings of non-Asian patients with acute necrotizing encephalopathy. Data were collected from three patients diagnosed in Athens over a 4-year period plus 16 cases reported from other European and North American countries. One of the Greek children died, and the other two had a normal outcome. A neuropathologic examination in the fatal case showed edematous necrosis without inflammatory, reactive, or proliferative changes. Data from Greek and other non-Asian patients support the homogeneity of the disease worldwide.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Child
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Leukoencephalitis, Acute Hemorrhagic / ethnology
  • Leukoencephalitis, Acute Hemorrhagic / pathology*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods
  • Male
  • Neocortex / pathology*
  • Review Literature as Topic
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods
  • White People