A case of limb-body wall complex diagnosed in utero.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Dursun Odabaş.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The PFAPA (Periodic Fever, Aphthous stomatitis, Pharyngitis, Adenitidis) syndrome is characterized by periodic fever, adenitis, pharyngitis, and aphthous stomatitis. Herein, we present a Turkish child with PFAPA syndrome mimicking familial Mediterranean fever because of a rare presentation. A 9-year-old boy was admitted with recurrent fever, aphthous stomatitis, sore throat, headache, and general body pains, lasting 2 to 3 days since 3.5 years of age. He was completely symptom-free between the attacks. He was diagnosed as having familial Mediterranean fever according to the clinical findings when he was 6 years of age and Colchicum tablet was administrated. Despite colchicines therapy for 8 months, his attacks did not subside; therefore, the drug was discontinued. He had high fever, a painful cervical lymphadenopathy, aphthous stomatitis, and tonsillo-pharyngitis. The patient was then diagnosed as having PFAPA syndrome. He was given a single dose of prednisolone (0.35 mg/kg/dose). His complaints dramatically and completely disappeared 3 h after administration of the drug. During the 8th month of follow-up, a similar febrile attack lasting only 1 day was noted and it was controlled with a single dose of prednisolone (0.5 mg/kg/day). At this writing the patient is in the 12th month of follow-up, and there have been no symptoms after the second attack. In conclusion, our patient shows that PFAPA syndrome can be confused with familial Mediterranean fever. We also would like to emphasize that the typical PFAPA syndrome can be easily diagnosed by detailed history-taking and physical findings.
An 11-year-old male was admitted with inability to walk and speech abnormality. He was diagnosed with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis on the basis of clinical and laboratory findings. Therapy with inosiplex (100 mg/kg/day orally) plus intrathecal interferon-alpha (3 million units/dose twice per week) and ribavirin (15 mg/kg/day orally) was initiated. Ribavirin was given orally because of a lack of parenteral form in our country. During follow-up, he complained about fever and widespread body pains after intrathecal therapy. On the sixth month of follow-up, generalized tonic-clonic seizures, associated with high fever, and lasting approximately 1-2 minutes occurred about 6 hours after giving interferon-alpha. Four days after the first seizures, a similar seizure attack reoccurred after intrathecal IFN-alpha. An antiepileptic agent was not administered because electroencephalogram results did not indicate epileptic discharges. At the current time, he is in the ninth month of follow-up and remains seizure-free. In conclusion, our case demonstrated that standard dose intrathecal interferon-alpha might cause seizures in children. We think that this unfortunate condition was more common in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis children treated with intrathecal interferon-alpha.
A 5-year-old girl was admitted with a 3-day history of speech disorder and gait abnormality. She had been diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy and was given phenytoin 2 months before admission to our hospital. On physical examination, she had severe lingual-facial-buccal extrapyramidal movements, slurred speech, and ataxic gait. During examination, she was repetitively scratching her scalp with her right hand every 30 to 60 seconds. Serum phenytoin level was 10 microg/mL (normal 8-20 microg/mL). Electroencephalography showed diffuse slow waves. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain was normal. During hospitalization, her abnormal findings were thought to be attributable to phenytoin; it was immediately discontinued, and biperiden was initiated. After biperiden was administered, her abnormal movements markedly decreased; later, they almost completely disappeared. In conclusion, we would like to emphasize that severe dyskinesia can be observed during phenytoin therapy and that biperiden can be successfully used in the treatment of this unpleasant condition.
Severe anemia, growth retardation, diabetes mellitus, cardiac disorders, and, infrequently, stroke are well-known complications of thalassemia major. We report a girl, age 7 years, 2 months, with beta-thalassemia major associated with chronic renal failure, diabetes mellitus, and cardiomyopathy in whom a silent stroke was noted during follow-up. She was diagnosed with thalassemia major at age 6 months, chronic renal failure at age 3 years, 3 months, and diabetes mellitus and cardiomyopathy at age 7 years. Although cranial computed tomography was found to be normal at the age of 3 years, 3 months, magnetic resonance imaging showed cerebral infarct in the right frontal region at 7 years, 2 months. A thrombophilic panel revealed increased factor VIII and decreased protein C concentrations. She died from disseminated intravascular coagulation at age 7 years, 9 months. We did not record any clinical findings of stroke during her follow-up. We think that diabetes mellitus, dilated cardiomyopathy, and increased factor VIII and decreased protein C concentrations led to the occurrence of cerebral infarct. In conclusion, we emphasize that children with thalassemia major should be monitored closely for stroke. We also suggest that stroke can show a silent progression in severely affected children, as in our case.
Many pesticides are formulated in organic solvents. An example is amitraz, one of the formamidine groups of pesticidal chemicals. It is commonly used for the treatment of generalized demodicosis in dogs and for the control of ticks and mites in cattle and sheep. In this article, the clinical and laboratory findings of eight children with amitraz intoxication are reviewed. The purpose was to enlighten the findings of amitraz intoxication in children. Of the eight patients, five (62.5%) were boys, three (37.5%) were girls, and the ages ranged from 1 to 4 years. All children accidentally ingested amitraz orally, with no dermal exposure. The most common observed signs were decreased consciousness and bradycardia. Leukocytosis, hyperglycemia, hypernatremia, increased serum aspartate transaminase level, and prolonged partial prothrombin time were diagnosed in children. None of the children had hypothermia, hypotension, or convulsion and none of the patients died. The findings show that the initial signs and symptoms of acute amitraz intoxication appeared severe but they disappeared, with only supportive care needed in most cases within a few days.
Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) intoxication has been infrequently reported in both children and adults in the literature. In this article, the clinical and laboratory findings of 49 children with acute deadly nightshade intoxication are reviewed. Our purpose was to enlighten the findings of deadly nightshade intoxication in childhood. The most common observed symptoms and signs were meaningless speech, tachycardia, mydriasis, and flushing. None of the children required mechanical ventilation or died in our series. The patients were categorized into two groups, mild/moderate and severe intoxication. Children with and without encephalopathy were accepted as severe and mild/moderate intoxication, respectively. While 43 children were placed in the group of mild/moderate intoxication, six were in severe intoxication group. We found that meaningless speech, lethargy, and coma were more common, but tachycardia was less common in the severe intoxication group (children with encephalopathy) (P < 0.05). In the treatment, neostigmine was used in all children because of no available physostigmine in our country. In conclusion, our findings showed that the initial signs and symptoms of acute deadly nightshade intoxication might be severe in some children, but no permanent sequel and death were seen in children. We also showed that meaningless speech, lethargy, coma, and absence of tachycardia were ominous signs in deadly nightshade intoxication in childhood. Lastly, we suggest that neostigmine may be used in cases of deadly nightshade intoxication if physostigmine cannot be available.
In this study the clinical and laboratory findings of 48 children with purulent meningitis were examined, prospectively, to determine the prognostic factors in childhood meningitis in a developing country. Patients were examined for the following variables: history of antibiotic use; period between onset of symptoms and hospital admission; age at presentation; sex; fever; convulsion; level of consciousness; malnutrition; anemia; leukocyte and thrombocyte counts; erythrocyte sedimentation rate; serum C-reactive protein (CRP) level; and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) including white blood cell count; glucose, protein, and CRP concentrations; antibiotic treatment; neurological sequelae; and fatality rate during the hospital stay. Most of these parameters were re-evaluated in all patients 36-48 h after admission. Patients were divided into 3 groups: surviving without sequelae, surviving with sequelae, and not surviving (deceased). A total of 48 children, 19 girls (39.5%) and 29 boys (60.5%), aged 2 months to 13 years, were included in the study. Of the 48 patients, 29 (60.5 %) survived without sequelae, 13 (27%) survived with sequelae and 6 (12.5%) died. In a comparison among groups, we found that absence of anemia, low (< 1,000) CSF white blood cell (WBC) count, and high CRP level at admission were the indicative of poor prognosis. Thirty-six to 48 h after admission, the presence of fever, depressed level of consciousness, high (> 1,000) CSF WBC count, and low CRP level were also poor prognostic factors. In addition, we observed that mortality rate was lower in the penicillin G + chloramphenicol group than in the ampicillin-sulbactam + cefotaxime group (P < 0.05). The mean period between onset of symptoms and hospital admission was longer in the surviving with sequelae and in the not surviving groups than in the surviving without sequelae group (P < 0.05).
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
A 27-month-old boy was admitted with speech abnormality, inability to walk, and involuntary movements. He was diagnosed with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis based on clinical and laboratory findings. Inosiplex (100 mg/kg/day orally) plus intrathecal interferon-alpha (3 million units/dose twice per week) in a standard regime were given. After four doses of interferon it was prescribed as 6 million units/dose/week because he had been admitted from a remote district. One day after giving the second dose of 6 million units of interferon, two generalized tonic-clonic seizures that occurred within an hour, associated with high fever, which lasted approximately 5 minutes were observed. An antiepileptic agent was not administered because electroencephalogram results did not indicate epileptic discharges. After this condition we returned to the first treatment protocol of interferon (3 million units/dose twice per week). At the current time, he is in the fifth month of follow-up and remains convulsion-free. To the best of our knowledge, seizures as a result of high-dose intrathecal interferon in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis has not been reported in the literature. Our patient demonstrated that it is reasonable to avoid the use of high-dose intrathecal interferon-alpha in childhood.
In this study, we studied serum calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, thyroid hormones (total thyroxine, free thyroxine, thyroid-stimulating hormone), parathyroid hormone, and osteocalcine levels in children with epilepsy who had been receiving long-term valproate (VPA) therapy in order to determine whether there was any effect of VPA therapy on these hormones. The study included 31 patients with epilepsy receiving VPA and 22 healthy age-matched controls. The age ranged from 15 months to 16 years and 18 months to 17 years in the study and control group, respectively. The duration of VPA use was between 12 months and 5 years (1.93 +/- 1.90 years). When comparing the results, we did not find any significant difference in any of the parameters, including serum calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcine, and thyroid and parathyroid hormone levels, between the study and control group. We suggest that VPA can safely be used with regard to thyroid and parathyroid dysfunction in childhood epilepsy.
Acute infantile hemorrhagic edema (AIHE) is a cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis, clinically characterized by the symptom triad of fever, large purpuric skin lesions, and edema. The clinical picture has a violent onset, a short benign course, and spontaneous complete recovery. In this article, we present eight patients who were admitted with rashes on the skin and edema on the eyelids and extremities, and were diagnosed with AIHE according to their clinical and histopathological features (immunohistological study was also performed in three of them). Our purpose was to emphasize that, aside from Henoch-Schönlein purpura, meningococcemia, septicemia, and purpura fulminans, AIHE benign disorder should also be considered in the differential diagnosis to determine the clinical course and treatment protocol in patients with purpuric rashes.
A 10-month-old boy was admitted with ptosis on the left eyelid, which rapidly occurred following a disease with rash about 20 days before admission to our hospital. By history, none of the vaccinations had been performed. On physical examination, his vital signs were stable, and he had marasmus. Isolated left oculomotor nerve palsy was diagnosed. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging was normal. Serum IgM antibody to measles virus was positive. Oculomotor nerve palsy markedly improved on the 15th day of follow-up, and complete improvement was noted on the second month of follow-up. To our knowledge, this is the first case of oculomotor nerve palsy following measles.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.