The purpose of this study is to clear up the difference between Asperger's disorder (AS) and high functioning autism (HFA) with a newly developed test, the metaphor and sarcasm scenario test (MSST) can be used to distinguish pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) from attention deficit/hyperactivityd isorders (AD/HD).
So 66 AS children, 20 HFA children and 37 AD/HD children were selected, compared the profiles of score on the MSST.
The results showed that the inability to understand sarcastic situation was specific to group with AS, both group with HFA and AD/HD were differ little to understand between metaphor and sarcasm.
In this study suggest differences in situational recognition among the PDD subtypes, the clinical symptoms of PDD reflects characteristics of AS.

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The KINDL^®-questionnaiisr ea ble to measure degrees of health and adaptability in relation to quality of life (QOL) in children. The questionnaire can be completed by children, adolescents, and their parents (parent-version). We had translated Kid-KINDL^® questionnaire into Japanese as Questionnaire for Measuring QOL in Japanese Elementary School Children, and reported their reliability and validity.
This study investigates Japanese elementary school version of the Kid-KINDL^® questionnaires cores consisting of 6 dimensions (4items each; total score, 100) for children with developmental disorders without mental retardation including high-functioned pervasive developmental disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and learning disorder, and the parent-version scores for their mothers
Twenty individuals in normal class and their mothers participated after informed consents were obtained. Their total QOL scores were significantly lower than those in control group. Four of 6 dimensions consisting of emotional well-being, self-esteem, family, friends and school had significantly lower points. Their mothers' points in total QOL scores and all dimensions except for family dimension were significantly lower than those in control group. In comparison of scores between children with mild developmental disorders and their mothers, children estimated lower in self-esteem and family dimensions instead mother estimated lower in health, emotionalwell-being and school dimensions. There was no difference in total scores between them.
Children with mild developmental disorders and their mothers estimate lower points of QOL scores than those of the normal control group. There are different perceptions in 5 of 6 dimensions between the children and their mothers

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We measured saccadic response time (SRT) to investigate developmental changes related to spatially aligned or misaligned auditory and visual stimuli responses. We exposed 4-, 5-, and 11-month-old infants to ipsilateral or contralateral auditory-visual stimuli and monitored their eye movements using an electro-oculographic (EOG) system. The SRT analyses revealed four main results. First, saccades were triggered by visual stimuli but not always triggered by auditory stimuli. Second, SRTs became shorter as the children grew older. Third, SRTs for the ipsilateral and visual-only conditions were the same in all infants. Fourth, SRTs for the contralateral condition were longer than for the ipsilateral and visual-only conditions in 11-month-old infants but were the same for all three conditions in 4- and 5-month-old infants. These findings suggest that infants acquire the function of auditory-visual spatial integration underlying saccadic eye movement between the ages of 5 and 11 months. The dependency of SRTs on the spatial configuration of auditory and visual stimuli can be explained by cortical control of the superior colliculus. Our finding of no differences in SRTs between the ipsilateral and visual-only conditions suggests that there are multiple pathways for controlling the superior colliculus and that these pathways have different developmental time courses.

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To explore the frequency and prognosis of neurological complications of acute lymphocytic leukemia, retrospective studies were made of patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia. Neurological complications were found in 13 of 100 patients during and after treatment. They were caused by chemotherapy in 8 patients, irradiation therapy in 2, vitamin B deficiency in 1, and unknown in 2. Medications primarily relevant to these complications were methotrexate in 5 patients, L-asparaginase in 2, cytosin arabinoside in 1. The patients were diagnosed as having leukoencephalopathy (8), cerebrovascular injury (4), and Wernicke's encephalopathy (1). Symptomatic epilepsy was found in one patient, and mental retardation was seen in three patients during a 2-year course of treatment. We conclude that careful management is required in the treatment of acute lymphocytic leukemia, because of the persistence of neurological complications, although their severity is decreasing with advances in treatment.

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We studied thirty-one children with hemiplegia to elucidate the relationship of intelligence, the laterality of a lesion, and epilepsy, in these children. We investigated the influences of the age at the onset of the seizures, the number of anti-convulsants, andthe duration of medication, on the DQ/FIQ. The results indicated a significantly higher DQ/FIQ and VIQ for right hemiplegic children than for left hemiplegic children. But the PIQ of the patients with either a left or right hemiplegia was not significantly different. A significantly higher DQ/FIQ, VIQ, and PIQ was also revealed for the children without epilepsy. In addition, there was also a tendency that the DQ/FIQ of children who suffered from epilepsy before the age of one year was lower than that of children who suffered from epilepsy after the age of one year. The present results provide evidence which supports the crowding hypothesis.

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Previous studies have reported a high prevalence of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) among women taking sodiumvalproate (VPA). We report the case of a 28 year-old epileptic female taking VPA, who developed PCOS and later hepatocellular adenoma. She had been taking VPA for intractable epilepsy since the age of 15 months. At the age of 22 years, she suffered spontaneous rupture of a liver tumor that was diagnosed as hepatocellular adenoma. At the age of 24 years, bilateral polycystic ovaries were found by transabdominal ultrasonography, and PCOS was diagnosed. VPA may directly influence steroidogenesis in the ovary and cause hyperandrogenemia with ensuing PCOS. It is known that abnormality in the sex hormones contributes to the onset of hepatocellular adenoma. Therefore, we speculate that hyperandrogenemia due to VPA contributed to the development of hepatocellular adenoma in this case

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is rare in children and the efficacy and safety of interferon beta 1b (IFN-β 1b) treatment inchildhood MS has not yet been established. We started to treat a boy who suffered from relapsing remitting MS with IFN-β 1b at8.5 years of age, because he had severe neurological disability in consequence of frequent relapses and incomplete remission. After initiating IFN-β 1b treatment, his clinical course moved to secondary progressive (SP) MS, and he demonstrated poor improvement in degenerative progression and his disability continued to worsen. We could speculate that IFN-β 1b was not effective regarding the degenerative component of childhood MS as in that of adult MS. SPMS is extremely rare in children, and this case would provide a very important implication to predict the tolerability of IFN-β 1b treatment depending on the type of clinical course in childhood MS.

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We report here an 11-year-old boy who was diagnosed as sporadic hemiplegic migraine demonstrated transient changes in electroencephalographic (EEG) background activity accompanied with migraine attacks. The attacks were associated with various neurological complications such as impairment of consciousness and hemiplegia and so on, which coincided with the changes of EEG findings. When his first headache developed with fever and impairment of consciousness, diffuse slow waves (1-2 Hz, 250-300μV) appeared transiently. The slow wave gradually improved thereafter, and disappeared on the 24th day. On the 25th day, when he had the second attack with left hemiplegia and impairment of consciousness and sensation, slow waves, (2-3Hz, 250-300μV) appeared on right side of the brain. Constriction of the right middle cerebral artery was found on MR angiography at that time. The EEG change had improved tonormal background activity 3 days after the episode.
This unique case demonstrated that transient EEG changes seem to be correlated with the existence of unconsciousness and the laterality of the ischemic insult. We may assume that the changes of electroencephalographic findings may represent the cortical dysfunction caused by vascular constriction.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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