title: Congenital varicella syndrome: case with isolated brain damage.
abstract: We report a case of congenital varicella syndrome after maternal infection during the 10th week of pregnancy. None of the typical abnormalities were manifested at birth; however, the child experienced neonatal tonic convulsions that evolved to refractory focal epilepsy with adversive, complex partial, and secondarily generalized seizures. At the age of 5 years, after a prolonged generalized seizure following cranial trauma, cranial computed tomography (CT) was performed. It led to the misdiagnosis of post-traumatic intracerebral hemorrhage. Afterwards, because of persistent seizures and developmental delay with mild or slight intellectual deficit, the next CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) investigation at 8 years of age disclosed massive malformation of the left cerebral hemisphere. The serologic evidence of varicella-zoster virus-specific IgG antibodies without a history of varicella disease after birth and maternal infection during early pregnancy were crucial to diagnosing the rare syndrome of congenital varicella consisting of isolated brain damage.
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Child Neurology, University Hospital of Neurology and Psychiatry, Sofia, Bulgaria. pdimova@omega.bg
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Dimova
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Karparov
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D002644:Chickenpox / Q000151:congenital* / Q000821:virology; D002648:Child; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004829:Epilepsy, Generalized / Q000175:diagnosis; D005315:Fetal Diseases / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed