Transient seizure disappearance due to bilateral striatal necrosis in a patient with intractable epilepsy

Abstract

An 8-year-old girl had suffered from intractable epilepsy due to cortical dysplasia. She developed mycoplasma pneumonia with massive pleural effusion. Fever continued for 3 weeks. Four weeks after the onset of this infection, she suddenly developed horizontal nystagmus, ataxia, choreoathetotic movements and confusion. CT disclosed swelling and low density of the heads of the caudate nuclei and putamina bilaterally. MRI revealed areas of symmetrical high intensity in the striatum on T2-weighted imaging. These lesions were thought to comprise bilateral striatal necrosis (BSN) mediated by the mycoplasma infection or Wernicke encephalopathy. Six months later, she had completely recovered clinically. During the 6 months after BSN, she did not have any epileptic seizures. Her epileptic seizures reappeared thereafter at a lower frequency. The striatum may be involved in the propagation pathway for epileptic seizure activity in this patient.