Background: Reversible posterior leukoencephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is a neurological disorder characterized by signs of posterior cerebral edema upon radiographic examination. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the records of nine children with the diagnosis of PRES. Results: Of the nine patients, seven were receiving immunosuppressive therapy and two were acute hypertensive crisis associated with renal disease. Immunosupressive drugs were intrathecal methotrexate in two patients, cyclosporine in two patients, intrathecal cytarabine in one patient, cyclophasphamide in one patient, and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) in another one patient. The most presenting symptoms were seizure, headache, and altered consciousness. Six patients had seizures. Altered consciousness was present in four patients. Headache and nausea or vomiting was present also in six patients. Visual abnormalities were noted in two patients. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies showed white-matter abnormalities suggestive of edema in the posterior regions of the cerebral hemispheres, but the changes often involved other cerebral areas, the brain stem, basal ganglia or the cerebellum. The patients were treated with antihypertensive medications, and immunosuppressive therapy was withdrawn. In all the patients, the clinical and radiological findings resolved morly completely. Conclusion: Reversible posterior leukoencephalopathy may develop in patients who have renal insufficiency or hypertension or who are immunosuppressed. This syndrome should be recognized immediately and trigger agents can be discontinued to prevent long-term sequelae.

Reversible encephalopathy syndrome developed without severe hypertension....

Objectives: The numerous antiepileptic drug (AED) withdrawal studies published in the last 40 years have relied mainly on heterogeneous study groups. There is still no general agreement on the criteria to predict safe discontinuation. The goal of this study was to assess the outcome of AED withdrawal in epileptic children. Materials and Methods: Three hundred and eight children with epilepsy were enrolled, and these patients followed at least 1 year after drug withdrawal. Time to seizure relapse and predictive factors were analyzed by survival methods. Results: Among the 308 patients, 179 (58.1%) were boys and 129 (41.9%) were girls and the mean age at the seizure onset was 60.41 ± 36.54 months (2-144 months). The recurrence occurred in 73 (23.7%) patients. Mental retardation, history of febrile seizure, etiological of epilepsy, abnormal first electroencephalogram (EEG), abnormal neuroimaging findings, and total number of AED before remission were significantly associated with relapse risk according to univariate analysis. In the multivariate analysis, abnormal first EEG and number of AED before remission (polytherapy) were the risk factors influencing seizure recurrence. Conclusions: In our study, recurrence rate was 23.7% in children and most occurred during the 1 ^st year. The potential risk factors of recurrence are history of febrile seizure, mental retardation, etiological of epilepsy, abnormal first EEG, abnormal neuroimaging findings, and total number of AED before remission. However, we found abnormal first EEG and polytherapy as risk factors of recurrence in multivariate analysis.