Iranian Journal of Child Neurology最新文献

Abstract: Gangliosidosis is one of the hereditary metabolic diseases caused by the accumulation of Gangliosid in the central nervous system, leading to severe and progressive neurological deficits. Regarding phenotype, GM1 and GM2-Gangliosidosis are divided into Infantile, Juvenile, and Adult.

Materials & methods: In this study, thirty-seven patients with GM1 and GM2-Gangliosidosis were referred to the neurology department of Mofid Children's Hospital in Tehran, Iran, whose disease was confirmed from September 2019 to December 2021. This study assessed age, sex, and developmental status before the onset of the disease, clinical manifestations, brain imaging, and electroencephalography.

Results: 97.20% of patients were the result of family marriage. Approximately 80% of juvenile patients were developmentally normal before the onset of the disease. Developmental delay was more common among infantile GM1-Gangliosidosis than infantile GM2-Gangliosidosis, but in total, more than 50% of GM1&GM2-Gangliosidosis patients had reached their developmental milestone before the onset of the disease. With the onset of disease symptoms, 100% of patients regressed in terms of movement, 97.20% of them mentally, and 75% of them had seizures during the disease. The most common clinical findings were cherry-red spot, Mongolian spot, macrocephaly, organomegaly, hyperacusis, and scoliosis. The most common brain imaging findings included bilateral thalamus involvement, brain atrophy, PVL, and delayed myelination. The most common finding in electroencephalography was background low voltage with abnormal sharp waves.

Conclusion: This study concluded that most of the patients are the result of family marriage, and most of the juvenile patients are developmentally normal before the onset of the disease. In addition, more than 50% of infantile patients reach their developmental milestones before the onset of the disease. The most common clinical findings of these patients are seizures, cherry-red spot, macrocephaly, hyperacusis, Mongolian spot, and bilateral involvement of the thalamus.

Objectives: Cerebral palsy (CP) is one of the most common causes of serious physical disability in childhood and is a persistent movement disorder before the age of three. This disorder can negatively affect both the child and their family. In recent years, the use of melatonin as a safe, effective, and cheap drug has been expanding in improving the sleep disorders of these children. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate melatonin's effect on sleep disorders in children with CP.

Materials & methods: This double-blind clinical trial was conducted on children aged 2 to 12 years with CP who were referred to the pediatric neurology clinic for sleep problems. The participants were included in the study by convenience sampling. After obtaining informed consent from parents, patients were divided randomly into two intervention (melatonin) and control (placebo) groups. In the intervention group, patients received oral melatonin tablets, and in the control group, patients received a placebo (3 mg oral lactose) 30 minutes before going to sleep.

Results: The results of this study showed no significant relationship between age and gender with sleep disorders in children with CP (P>0.05). A significant effect of melatonin on sleep disorders was found in children with CP. The greatest effect of melatonin is the time required to start falling asleep. Melatonin was associated with decreased time needed to fall asleep and increased sleep duration.

Conclusion: The results of the study demonstrated that sleep disorders are prevalent among children with CP. Therefore, proper and timely treatment of these children is crucial. According to the present study's findings, melatonin effectively improves the time of falling asleep and these children's sleep duration.

Anxiety disorders (ADs) are a group of mental disorders characterized by feelings of tension, fear, and excessive worrying in the face of life experiences. Aberrant signaling of adenosine A2a receptor (ADORA2A) is believed to be involved in the pathogenesis of ADs. Polymorphisms in the ADORA2A gene were shown to be associated with some of the patterns presented by ADs. The results of these studies have been inconsistent, making it hard to draw definitive conclusions. Therefore, this study performed a systematic review to clarify the associations between ADORA2A gene polymorphisms and ADs susceptibility. PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus database using appropriate keywords, then screened for separation of suitable studies based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. Collectively, rs5751876 (1976T>C or previously 1083C>T) and rs35060421 (2592C>Tins) polymorphisms of ADORA2A were associated with an increased susceptibility to ADs. Moreover, rs2298383 TT genotype may be the causal regulatory factor, and ADORA2A T/C (rs2298383/rs3761422) haplotypes have significant susceptibility to ADs development. Additional research is needed to further define the role of ADORA2A gene polymorphisms in the pathogenesis of ADs.

Ewing sarcoma (ES) is a highly malignant tumor originating from bones, exceptionally long bones. ES arising from the epidural extramedullary space, primarily the cervical region, is highly unlikely. There have been only six cases of cervical epidural extraskeletal Ewing sarcoma (EEES) in children reported in the literature, all of whom were older than seven years old. Four of seven cases, including the one mentioned in this study, were male (57%). Herein, we report a 1.5-year-old girl who presented with quadriparesis without cognitive impairment and had initially undergone a metabolic disorder evaluation. The spine MRI revealed a mass in the C2-T6 region, and she underwent a biopsy of the tumor via laminectomy. Microscopic examination confirms a diagnosis of ES based on immunohistochemistry. This is the first literature that presents an infant with EEES.

Objectives: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is prevalent worldwide. The incidence of autism has increased worldwide. However, there is a dearth of data in sub-Saharan Africa. The study is aimed at determining the clinical and socio-developmental profile of children with ASD in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria.

Materials & methods: This study is a six-year retrospective review of the medical records of children who presented with clinical autism diagnoses at the Department of Pediatrics, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. Relevant data were extracted from the medical records of those who met the diagnostic criteria. Descriptive statistics were presented in proportions, percentages, and tables.

Results: Of the 1806 children with neurological disorders seen in the clinic within the study period, twenty-eight were found to have symptoms of autism based on the American Psychiatric Association›s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual V (DSM -5) criteria, giving a prevalence of 1.6%. The mean age at diagnosis was 3.8 ±1.4 (range 2 to 10) years, with a male-to-female ratio of 3:1. About two-thirds of the children diagnosed were older than three years. Seven percent of the children had siblings with autism, 53.5% of children with autism in the study had hyperactivity as comorbidity, while seizures were found in 7% of cases.

Conclusion: The prevalence of ASD among children seen in Calabar is 1.6%. Hyperactivity, mental retardation, and seizure disorders are associated comorbidities in the study. Late presentation is a common feature in this facility. Thus, increasing awareness is essential to enhance early recognition, timely diagnosis, and appropriate intervention.

Objectives: Understanding the parenting practices of parents of children with epilepsy can be a practical guide for care and education planners to prevent mental disorders in these children. This study aimed to explain the parenting practices of parents of children with epilepsy in Shahrekord.

Materials & methods: This study is a qualitative study with conventional content analysis. Participants in the study consisted of 20 mothers with epileptic children in Shahrekord, who were included in the study by purposive sampling method with maximum variance in terms of child age, number of family children, and child sex. The data collection method was a semi-structured interview using the interview guide. Data analysis was performed using a conventional content analysis at the same time as data collection. Interviews continued until data saturation was reached.

Results: The present study revealed five main themes in discipline methods, including over-support / over-protection, forcing to support, rejecting, parental conflict in discipline methods, and using harmful discipline methods.

Conclusion: In conclusion, the experiences of mothers in the present study show that using inappropriate discipline methods can have adverse effects on the mental-emotional and social health of the child in the future and raise the need to design educational interventions to empower parents of epileptic children in coping with parenting stress effectively.

Objectives: Viruses are the most common infectious causes of aseptic meningitis (AM). After the COVID-19 pandemic, AM following the COVID-19 disease and its different vaccines were reported. This study compares some characteristics of patients with AM before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials & methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study analyzed patients' demographic and laboratory data (one month to 14 years old) with AM from March 2018 to March 2022. The first period involves two years before the COVID-19 outbreak (March 2018 to March 2020). The second period starts with the COVID-19 pandemic (from March 2020 until March 2022).

Results: A significant decrease was observed in the frequency of patients admitted with AM after the COVID-19 pandemic in the referral children's hospital in Qazvin. The incidence of AM in children older than five decreased significantly, and as a result, the average age of patients with this diagnosis decreased, too. A meaningful decline in the prevalence of AM in the summer and fall seasons has been observed.

Conclusion: After the COVID-19 outbreak, the incidence of AM in children significantly decreased. Implementing the hygienic recommendations for inhibiting COVID-19 virus transmission also protected children from the spread of other viruses.

Objectives: Shigellosis is one of the common causes of bacterial diarrhea in children. Seizures are common in shigellosis. It is essential to identify the risk factors of seizure in this disease.

Materials & methods: This study was conducted on 224 children with shigellosis. The patients were divided into: With (case groups = 63 cases) and without seizures (control group = 161 cases). Groups were compared regarding different variables such as age, gender, clinical symptoms, and laboratory findings. Data analysis was done using statistical tests and SPSS software. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the risk factors of seizures.

Results: Out of 224 cases of children with shigellosis, 107 (47.8%) were male and 117 (52.2%) female. Significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of age, history of febrile convulsions, frequency of bloody diarrhea, frequency of fever, duration of diarrhea before hospitalization, abdominal pain, increase in BUN, hyponatremia, hypocalcemia, and red blood cell count in stool (P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that a history of febrile seizure, fever, and hyponatremia are the risk factors for seizures in shigellosis.

Conclusion: This study concluded that a history of febrile seizure, fever, and hyponatremia are risk factors for seizure in childhood shigellosis, thus rapid diagnosis and treatment of childhood shigellosis with risk factors is very important.

Objectives: This study investigated the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) before and during the mirror visual feedback (MVF) on hand grip strength (HGS) and range of motion of the affected hand in children with spastic hemiplegia cerebral palsy (SHCP).

Materials & methods: Twelve children with SHCP participated in this randomized, crossover, and double-blind study. They were randomly exposed to one of four intervention conditions, including 1) a-tDCS-offline, 2) s-tDCS-offline, 3) a-tDCS-online, and 4) s-tDCS-online, with a one-week interval. Participants in the online condition received either anodal or sham tDCS during MVF, while those in the offline condition received tDCS before performing MVF. The tDCS was applied over the M1 area of the affected hemisphere for 20 minutes at 1 mA intensity. The HGS and range of motion of the wrist and elbow (ROM-W and ROM-E) of the affected limb were measured before (pre) and immediately after (post) interventions in each session.

Results: The results showed that the HGS was significantly higher under a-tDCS-offline (p=0.001), s-tDCS-offline (p=0.004), and s-tDCS-online (p=0.005) compared to the a-tDCS-online. Moreover, the ROM-W was significantly higher under a-tDCS-offline (p=0.034), s-tDCS-offline (0.011), and s-tDCS-online (p=0.027) compared to the a-tDCS-online. Eventually, the ROM-E was significantly higher under a-tDCS-offline, s-tDCS-offline, and s-tDCS-online compared to the a-tDCS-online (p ˂0.001; p ˂0.001; p=0.01, respectively).

Conclusion: The results might have practical implications regarding the timing of the application of tDCS in conjunction with MVF in children with SHCP.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), often recognized as a safe and tolerable method with promising therapeutic potential for the treatment of a variety of neurological disorders, has been extensively studied by medical engineering scientists in recent decades. Epilepsy has always been one of the vital foci in the therapeutic role of rTMS, especially its low-frequency type. However, various reports, clinical trials, and review articles published in recent years have yielded conflicting results regarding the efficacy and side effects of rTMS in patients. In this review article, reviewing studies published from January 2000 to October 2021, we examined the efficacy and side effects of rTMS with a specific look at its therapeutic applications in epilepsy. Our study indicates promising results in the clinical application of this technique for patients with epilepsy. Among other things, it has the ability to reduce interictal epileptic abnormalities, does not interfere with neuropsychological function in normal people, does not worsen cognitive function and even improves Stroop function, rarely has serious side effects such as seizures and psychotic symptoms, has low risk in children as adults, and has potential for improving suicidal ideation. Despite some limitations in this study, including the small number of studies performed and the heterogeneity among studies, this review article suggests significant rtMS potentials in improving the complications of epilepsy. Our review also showed that the reported side effects of using this technique are not very common. Therefore, we can recommend further use of this technique as a promising tool in clinical research.