title: Alternating hemiplegia in childhood: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: Six patients with alternating hemiplegia in childhood (AHC) were followed, some of them up to childhood. Progressive intellectual deterioration and disturbance of pyramidal, extrapyramidal and cerebellar functions were found in all of them. Multimodal evoked potential abnormalities, changes of sleep structure and HMPAO-SPECT results were correlated with increasing clinical handicap. In older patients increases in the plasma level of lactate, as well as in the lactate: pyruvate ratio, were revealed, accompanied by elevated inorganic phosphate (Pi) values on 31P MR spectroscopy. These findings support the hypothesis of a possible secondary mitochondrial deficit in AHC. However, no specific bioptic changes (muscle, skin, or buccal mucous membrane) were found, and thus the etiology of AHC remains unclear.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, 1st Medical Faculty, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nevsímalová
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dittrich
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Havlová
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tauberová
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Korsová
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hájek
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Masopust
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Michalová
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004576:Electromyography; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005444:Flunarizine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006429:Hemiplegia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007773:Lactates / Q000097:blood; D019344:Lactic Acid; D008297:Male; D009128:Muscle Spasticity / Q000473:pathology; D011773:Pyruvates / Q000097:blood; D019289:Pyruvic Acid; D011859:Radiography; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
chemical_list: D007773:Lactates; D011773:Pyruvates; D019344:Lactic Acid; D019289:Pyruvic Acid; D005444:Flunarizine