脳炎脳症・感染症

Imaging diagnosis of pediatric emergency diseases：encephalitis & encephalopathy

痙攣や意識障害は小児救急の受診理由の上位を占める。その大部分は熱性痙攣で予後良好であるが，なかには脳炎・髄膜炎や急性脳症など，治療の遅れにより神経学的後遺症を残したり，ときには生命を脅かしたりする重篤な疾患がまぎれている。

Convulsions and disorders of consciousness are common in pediatric emergencies. Most of them are febrile convulsions with a good prognosis, but there are some serious diseases such as encephalitis, meningitis, and acute encephalopathy that can leave neurological sequelae and sometimes threaten life due to delay in treatment. Encephalitis and meningitis are diseases in which pathogens such as bacteria and viruses invade and cause damage to the central nervous system, while encephalopathy is a disease in which pathogens do not invade the central nervous system but cause brain damage due to infection in other parts of the body. In this paper, we will review the clinical and imaging findings, focusing on diseases in which the imaging findings are relatively characteristic and provide clues to cause and pathogenesis, as well as diseases that are highly urgent.