Clinical effects of risperidone were evaluated in 9 young autistic children under informed consent of their parents. The patients were evaluated by the Children's Behavioral Checklist and Rutter's Autistic Behavioral Rating Scale. After the administration, two subjects (playing and adaptation to change) of the Children's Behavioral Checklist and four (anomalous autistic behavior, destructive behavior, developmental problem and activity level) of the Rutter's Autistic Behavioral Rating Scale were improved significantly. There were no serious side effects such as extrapyramidal symptoms except minor adverse effects including sedation, depression, increased appetite and constipation. Risperidone might be effective for serious behavioral disturbances in young autistic children.

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This study was designed to investigate the incidence and prognosis of epilepsy in 109 patients with cerebral palsy and to attempt to correlate these clinical data with the type of palsy. The incidence of epilepsy, the onset of age and the type of first seizure were associated with the regions affected by palsy. A good association exists between tetraplegia and age-dependent epileptic encephalopathy. In patients with cerebral cortical lesions demonstrated by radiological examination, the incidence of epilepsy was significantly increased. The prognosis of epilepsy is not related to the type of palsy. In spastic palsy, the patients with epilepsy showed more severe intellectual disabilities.

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Eighty-two episodes of status epilepticus or clusters of seizures in 45 children were treated with intravenous midazolam. Twenty-two children had epilepsy and 23 had acute symptomatic seizures. Midazolam was administered as an intravenous bolus dose at 0.06-0.4 mg/kg (mean 0.173 mg/kg), followed by continuous intravenous infusion at 0.05-0.4 mg/kg/hr (mean 0.191 mg/kg/hr). The mean duration of the treatment was 132.7 hours. Complete arrest of seizures was achieved in 62 episodes, and decrease by more than 50% in seizure frequency in 8 clusters of seizures. In these 70 successfully treated cases (85.4%), the effect appeared within 45 minutes after the initiation of therapy. No severe adverse effects were noted except stridor and mild respiratory suppression in 2 cases. Midazolam is an effective and safe drug to be used in a first-line or second-line therapy for status epilepticus and clusters of seizures in children.

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A two-year-three-month old girl was hospitalized for detailed examination following repeated hyper-creatine kinasemia and cervical muscle cramps induced by pyrexia and persistent hypertonicity of the cervical muscles. Physical examination showed mild hypotonia but no muscle weakness. Induction of symptoms by continuous cervical muscular exercise and the appearance of dicarboxylic aciduria during the fasting test indicated a disorder of fatty acid oxidation. Free fatty acid and acyl carnitine analyses using dried blood spots, and acyl-CoA dehydrogenase activity assays using cultured skin fibroblasts established a diagnosis of very-long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (VLCAD) deficiency. Currently VLCAD deficiency has been divided into three phenotypes ; a severe childhood form, a milder childhood form, and an adult form. However, we suggest that the severe and milder childhood forms would be better described as a systemic form, and the adult form and our infant case as a myopathic form. An early onset of the myopathic form within the first year of life, as well as its diagnosis in early infancy, has never been described in the literature.

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A comparative study of MRI and pathology was performed on a case of cryptococcal meningoencephalitis. An 11-year-old female presented with confusion and vomiting. On admission, CSF examination revealed spherical fungal cells with mild pleocytosis, decreased glucose and elevated protein level. MRI showed multiple punctate lesions in the basal ganglia with high intensity on T₂-weighted image, while enhanced MRI revealed diffuse meningeal involvement. Post-mortem examination disclosed that the T₂-weighted lesions found in the basal ganglia were aggregated small cystic lesions consisting of a cryptococcal invasion of Virchow-Robin spaces, termed “soap bubble lesions”, characteristic findings of cryptococcal meningoencephalitis. Thus MRI findings of the basal ganglia and meninges may help to diagnose cryptococcal meningoencephalitis.

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We report here a 6-year-old boy with narcolepsy. The diagnostic criteria were met by the clinical symptoms including excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy, and by the results of overnight polysomnography (PSG), multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), and human leukocyte antigen (HLA). PSG showed increased ratio of sleep stages 1 and 2 due to frequent awakening. All the five test session of MSLT showed a sleep onset REM period. HLA typing was positive for DRB1 1501 and DQB1 0602. Though the present case had very early onset, all the clinical symptoms and results of sleep studies met the criteria of narcolepsy. The CSF orexin level was far below the lower limit of the control values. It is very useful to measure CSF orexin for the diagnosis of early onset narcolepsy.

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Two months-old girl with psychomotor retardation had aminophylline-resistant apnea attacks and was investigated by video-EEG recording. She had hypogenesis of cerebral cortex and cerebellum and complete agenesis of corpus callosum. Left hemispheric 2 Hz rhythmic δ wave burst originating from the posterior temporal area lasted about 20 seconds, and was followed by an apnea attack persisting for 30 seconds. During the apnea attack, the basic activity of EEG was suppressed. The diagnosis of epileptic apnea was made, and the attacks were controlled with valproate sodium. Reports of cases of brain anomaly presenting with epileptic apnea are rare and this interesting case provided a clue to the pathomechanism of this condition.

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We report here a case of bilateral striatal necrosis associated with vesicular eruption in the generalized skin. A 13-year-old, previously healthy boy had a febrile disease which was treated with antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, and an antiemetic agent. Two days later, generalized vesicular rash appeared. Seven days later, he became dysarthric. Rigidity and paralysis of the legs also developed, followed by mild disturbance of consciousness. Despite treatment with high-dose methylprednisolone and L-dopa, neurological symptoms worsened after admission, with appearance of involuntary movements and dysphagia. One month later, however, they improved spontaneously, and the patient was discharged with minimal sequelae. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated high signal intensity lesions in the bilateral striatum on both the T₁-and T₂-weighted images.
The dermatologic and neurologic disorders of this case may have resulted from drug allergy, although role of the infection was not excluded completely. The MRI findings may reflect microhemorrhage or necrosis in the striatal lesions.

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We report here an infant with 18q deletion syndrome, and intractable apneic seizures. He had intrauterine growth retardation and dysmorphic features. Chromosomal analysis demonstrated mosaicism of 18q interstitial deletion (q12.3-q22.3). From the age of 3 months, apneic attacks occurred from once a week to over 10 times a day despite many oral antiepileptic agents, and were diagnosed as complex partial seizures. Ictal electroencephalogram and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography at the age of 10 months identified the epileptic focus in the right parietotemporal region. He also had severe psychomotor retardation. Head MRI examination revealed diffuse cerebral atrophy and severe white matter dysmyelination, which was caused by the deletion of myelin basic protein gene at the locus of 18q22.3. This locus may be responsible for the clinical manifestations of 18q deletion syndrome. Detailed description of the onset, seizure types, and prognosis of epilepsy associated with 18q deletion syndrome is rare. It was suggested that the locus of 18q21.3-q22.3 was responsible for autonomic seizures in 18q deletion syndrome.

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Liposteroid was administered intravenously to 6 patients with refractory epileptic spasms. In one case, the spasms initially disappeared but then reappeared after three months. Another case had a transient and slight decrease of epileptic spasms. In the only patient in whom spasms disappeared, EEG abnormalities were greatly improved with diffuse spikes and waves changing into focal spikes. Two cases displayed hyperexcitability, insomnia and acting out behavior, and the therapy was discontinued in one of them. One case had appetite loss and another showed an increase in tonic seizures. No patient had serious adverse effects such as infection, edema, subdural hematoma and brain shrinkage. Although liposteroid therapy has been recommended as an easy, useful and safe alternative for ACTH, we found considerable adverse effects and only a small effect on refractory spasms, and conclude that the regimen should be modified.

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[in Japanese]

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