This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (1)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Bacterial Infections  • Neurology  • Encephalitis  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

We read the recent article by Cree et al¹ with great interest. The authors present a case of a 33-year-old woman previously treated with immunosuppressive agents for Henoch-Schönlein purpura. Progressive development of initially flulike symptoms to severe neurological impairment with lethargy, cogwheeling, increased limb tone, and brisk reflexes was diagnosed as coxsackievirus B4 meningoencephalitis. Experimental therapy with the antiviral agent pleconaril was ineffective. Magnetic resonance imaging showed focal hyperintense lesions in the brainstem that correlated with pathologic findings seen at autopsy after fatal central nervous system infection and myocarditis.

One might suspect that coxsackie-virus B4 detection was associated with rather than causative of meningoencephalitis in this patient, so our recommendation is to extend the spectrum of differential diagnoses according to our experience in a case with a similar history as well as clinical and magnetic resonance imaging findings. A 20-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with a 2-week history . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Oliver Lanczik, MD; Olivera Lecei, MD; Stefan Schwarz, MD; Michael Hennerici, MD
Mannheim, Germany

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLE

Mycoplasma pneumoniae Infection as a Treatable Cause of Brainstem Encephalitis—Reply
Gary L. Bernardini, Bruce C. Cree, Arthur P. Hays, and Gina Lowe
Arch Neurol. 2003;60(12):1813-1814.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Bickerstaff Brainstem Encephalitis Associated With Mycoplasma pneumoniae Infection
Steer et al.
J Child Neurol 2006;21:533-534.
ABSTRACT