title: Excitotoxicity in acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion.
abstract: Acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion (AESD) is a recently described clinicoradiologic syndrome. MR spectroscopy in 3 patients with AESD revealed decreased N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and elevated glutamine/glutamate complex (Glx) during the week of presentation. Afterward, Glx normalized, whereas NAA remained low in 2 patients with neurologic sequelae but nearly normalized in the third patient without neurologic sequelae. These findings support the hypothesis that excitotoxic neuronal damage plays an important role in the pathogenesis of AESD and suggest that MR spectroscopy might be predictive of outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Kameda Medical Center, Kamogawa, Japan. jtaka@kameda.jp
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Takanashi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tada
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Terada
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Barkovich
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D012640:Seizures / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D018698:Glutamic Acid