Citations
Japanese encephalitis (JE) shows characteristic brain lesions, including bilateral thalamus, midbrain, internal capsule, basal ganglia, and occasionally involves an anterior horn cell. We encountered a case of a 44-year-old man who initially presented with encephalitis, which was finally diagnosed as Japanese encephalomyelitis with syringomyelia. The patient showed severe motor weakness followed by delayed recovery of functional motor activities. Cervical magnetic resonance imaging showed syrinx formation at the C5 level suggesting myelitis, and abnormal electromyographic findings were noted. Clinicians should consider the possibility that the spinal cord may be involved; an example would be syringomyelia due to myelitis in a case of JE presenting with severe and prolonged motor weakness.
Citations
Several cases of acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) with influenza A (H1N1) have been reported to date. The prognosis of ANE associated with H1N1 is variable; some cases resulted in severe neurologic complication, whereas other cases were fatal. Reports mostly focused on the diagnosis of ANE with H1N1 infection, rather than functional recovery. We report a case of ANE with H1N1 infection in a 4-year-old Korean girl who rapidly developed fever, seizure, and altered mentality, as well as had neurologic sequelae of ataxia, intentional tremor, strabismus, and dysarthria. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed lesions in the bilateral thalami, pons, and left basal ganglia. To our knowledge, this is the first report of ANE caused by H1N1 infection and its long-term functional recovery in Korea.
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