Evaluation of demographic, clinical and paraclinical characteristics of children with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis

Abstract

Introduction: Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is an immunologically mediated inflammatory demyelinating disorder that commonly occurs following a viral infection or vaccination. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the demographic, clinical and paraclinical characteristics of children with ADEM. Patients and Methods: In a retrospective study, all children who had a definite diagnosis of ADEM were included in the study. Demographic information (including age and gender), epidemiological features (season of onset, history of previous vaccination and previous infection), clinical signs of ADEM, paraclinical features and also clinical outcomes were extracted from patients’ records and entered into a researcher-made checklist. All data were collected, classified and entered into SPSS version 21 for statistical analysis. Results: A total of 27 patients with ADEM were studied out of which, 16 (59.3%) were male and 11 (40.7%) were female. The mean age of patients was 5.21 ± 4.37 years, the youngest of which was three months and the oldest patient had 13 years old. The highest incidence (33.3%) was observed in autumn and 66.7% of patients had a history of recent infection. Electroencephalographic (EEG) findings were abnormal in 55.6% of patients. The most common clinical finding of abnormal EEG was motor disorders (51.8%). Among those who conducted MRI, 71.4% of them had cortical lesions in the brain. In the majority of cases (51.9%), the treatment achieved with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) alone and complete recovery. Conclusion: The ADEM in this region has relatively similar epidemiological features to those studied worldwide and the favorable treatment of our cases has led to a satisfactory percentage of complete clinical recovery.