Guillain-Barré syndrome(GBS) has clinical characteristics:flaccid,symmetrical,ascending paralysis.Cranial nerves and respiratory muscle related,albuminocytologic dissociation in cerebrospinal fluid,and electrophysiological changes.GBS was believed to be an autoimmune perineuropathy.Recently,there were more and more reports about GBS spectrum disorders or GBS variant correlated with anti-GQ1b antibody or anti-GM1 IgG antibody et al.The GBS Classification Group presented the new clinical criteria in 2014,to enable neurologists and non-neurologists to diagnose GBS and all its variants using a simple yet all-inclusive classification system.

Objective To discuss the clinical manifestations,imaging features and prognosis of children with mild encephalitis/encephalopathy with a reversible splenial lesion(MERS).Methods Twenty-five patients with MERS admitted to Beijing Children′s Hospital,Capital Medical University,between November 2013 and March 2016 were enrolled and their clinical and imaging data were retrospectively analyzed.Ages of onset of these 25 cases were from 6 months to 13 years old.Because of different clinical manifestations in different onset ages,these 25 cases were divided into 2 groups:≤6 years old group (20 cases),with the onset age of 6 months to 3 years and 9 months old(average 2 years and 2 months);>6 years old group(5 cases),with the onset age of 9 years 3 months to 13 years old (average 10 years and 10 months).Results Nineteen cases among the 25 patients had infection history before onset,including 10 cases of digestive tract infection(all were ≤6 years old children),9 cases of respiratory tract infection(6 children ≤6 years old and 3 children >6 years old).The main clinical manifestations included convulsion (18/25 cases,72.0%),fever (17/25 cases,68.0%),vomiting (11/25 cases,44.0%),and disturbance of consciousness (11/25 cases,44.0%).The main clinical manifestation of ≤6 years old group was convulsion (18/20 cases,90.0%),while the main clinical manifestations of the>6 years old group were fever(3/5 cases,60.0%),headache and dizziness(2/5 cases,40.0%),and none of the patients in >6 years old group had convulsion.Eight cases had liver function injury,myocardial enzymes increased in 10 cases,and hyponatremia occurred in 9 cases.Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed 21 cases were type Ⅰ MERS(only involving corpus callosum),and 4 cases of type Ⅱ MERS which involved corpus callosum as well as deep brain white matter,subcortical white matter (centrum semiovale).MRI lesions disappeared after 8-56 days (average 16.5 days) of anti-infection and reducing intracranial pressure treatment.Conclusion MERS is more common in ≤6 years old children,and digestive tract infection is common in ≤6 years old children,while respiratory tract infection is common in >6 years old children.The symptoms in children are mainly manifested as fever,convulsion,vomiting,conscious disturbance,and so on.Infection and hyponatremia are the main causes of MERS in children.MRI is the first choice of imaging examination methods.

The child was a preschool girl who was admitted for the first time due to " convulsions,disturbance of consciousness and fever for 2 days".The girl was diagnosed as acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM).After immunotherapy,the girl recovered.During the course of hormone reduction,the cranial magnetic resonance imaging showed aggravated,and neurological symptoms were followed.There was a transient decrease of blood cells.After repeat hormone treatment,the girl was improved again,but the intracranial lesions still showed progressive aggravation tendency.The course of central nervous system demyelinating in this patient was unknown.When her younger sibling prestentd fever,hepatosplenomegaly,blood cell decreased and was diagnosed with familial haemophagocytosis syndrome(FHPS),through case discussion and gene testing,the girl was finally diagnosis "central nervous system involvement at the onset of FHPS".The case suggests unexplained central nervous system demyelinating lesions,regardless of whether there are abnormalities of blood system,should pay attention to haemophagocytosis syndrome.Positive immunotherapy should be given after diagnosis,and stem cell transplantation should be given as soon as possible to improve prognosis.

Objective: To characterize fever-induced paroxysmal weakness and encephalopathy (FIPWE) caused by ATP1A3 gene pathogenic variant. Methods: Phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of 4 FIPWE patients (3 boys and 1 girl), who were ascertained from October 2016 to March 2018 in Beijing Children's Hospital due to ATP1A3 heterozygous variants, were retrospectively analyzed. The whole exsome sequencing was used for genetic testing. Results: The onset ages of 4 patients were 2 years and 9 months, 2 years and 4 months, 8 months, 2 years and 5 months respectively. The episode ranged from 1 to 3 times, and at 3 months to 2 years and 10 months intervals. All 4 patients had symptoms of limb weakness and encephalopathy, accompanied with mild to severe ataxia or athetosis. The tendon reflex was absent in all patients, and the Babinski's sign was positive. Three patients had dysphagia and 3 patients had slurred speech. Three patients had abnormal eye movements, including strabismus and opsoclonus. None of the 4 patients exhibited visual impairment, auditory impairment or talipes cavus. The duration of acute phase ranged from 1 week to 3 months. In 3 relapsing patients, symptoms became progressively worse, with relapses occurring frequently and recovery being more difficult, and various sequelae were found after the last relapse. All patients carried heterozygous variant in ATP1A3 gene. The missense variants result in the substitution of an arginine residue at position 756. Three variants were identified, including C. 2267G > T (p. R756L) (1 case), C. 2266C > T (p. R756C) (2 cases), and C. 2267G > A (p. R756H) (1 case). Three were de novo and one inherited from his father, but the grandparents did not carry the variant. All variants were reported as pathogenic. Conclusions FIPWE is one of new clinical phenotypes of ATP1A3 spectrum disease and most cases are sporadic. The missense variants result in the substitution of an arginine residue at position 756. This report provided insights into the phenotype-genotype association in patients with FIPWE caused by pathogenic variants of ATP1A3.

Objective: To investigate the clinical manifestations, laboratory findings, treatment and outcome of anti-GQ1b antibody syndrome. Method: The clinical manifestations, laboratory examination, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of (4 patients 4 male patients, from 4 to 12 years) with anti-GQ1b syndrome in Beijing Children's Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University from 2015 to 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Result: All 4 children presented with ataxia. Case 1 showed impaired speech, ptosis and weakness of arms; case 2 and 3 had external ophthalmoplegia, weakness of limbs; case 4 presented hypersomnia, irritability and hallucinations. Serum anti-GQ1b-IgG antibody was positive in all cases. Case 1-3 received lumber puncture at the course of 1-2 weeks, CSF presented albuminocytological dissociation, case 4 had CSF pleocytosis and increased protein level. Brain MRI of Case 1-2 were normal; Case 3 showed long T1 and T2 signal in cerebellar dentate nucleus, pons and corpus callosum; Case 4 showed long T1 and T2 signal in bilateral centrum semiovale, basal ganglia, external capsule, insula and cerebellum. Electromyograms of case 1-3 showed peripheral axonal lesion. All children were treated with IVIG. After treatment, condition of all patients were improved. According to the clinical manifestation, laboratory examination, and outcome after treatment, case 1 was diagnosed as anti-GQ1b antibody syndrome (Pharyngeal-Cervical-Brachial weakness overlapped with Miller Fisher syndrome), case 2 and 3 were diagnosed as anti-GQ1b antibody syndrome (Miller Fisher syndrome overlapped with Guillain Barré syndrome) and case 4 was diagnosed as anti-GQ1b antibody syndrome (acute ataxia hypersomnolence). Conclusion When patients with the presence of prodromic infections, monophasic course, drowsiness, ataxia, ophthalmoplegia, weakness and the symptoms/signs are relatively symmetric, anti-GQ1b antibody syndrome should be considered. Anti-GQ1b antibody has important significance for diagnosis. Most children have a good prognosis. Early correct diagnosis can avoid unnecessary examinations and guide appropriate use of immunotherapy.

Objective To explore the assessment system of humanistic communication in the grad-uation examination of pediatric residents. Methods A humanistic communication assessment program and an evaluation form were designed and put into practice in the graduation examination of pediatric residents in 2016 and 2017 in Beijing Children's Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University and the scores were collected and analyzed to compare the differences in pediatric residents who have undergone system-atic physician-patient communication scene training and who didn't. With this analysis, the assessment system was further improved. Results Of all the 5 dimensions, communication content, nonverbal skills, and communication effects and the comparison of their respective scores were statistically significant. The scores of the residents who have undergone systematic physician-patient communication scene training are much better than those who didn't. Conclusion This assessment system focuses on the investigation of ability. From the design of examination questions and assessment scenes, to the evaluation of students per- formances, only when candidates have mastered the skills of communication can they do well in examina-tions and achieve good results.

Objective: To investigate the clinically and genetic characteristics of children with Leigh syndrome. Method: Patients with clinically diagnosed Leigh syndrome(LS)in the department of Neurology, Beijing Children′s Hospital from January 2013 to February 2016 underwent the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and nuclear DNA (nDNA) detecting with next generation sequencing (NGS) technology. The clinical data of gene confirmed cases were retrospectively collected and analyzed. The differences in the onset age, clinical manifestations, lactic acid level and MRI results between the mtDNA variation and nDNA variation were compared and analyzed.t test, Chi-square test and Fisher′s exact test were used for statistical analysis. Result: Thirty-five cases were diagnosed by gene detection, including 20 males and 15 females. The median onset age was 1 year (ranging from the neonatal period to 4.4 years old). The age of onset within 2 years accounted for 74%(26 cases). The onset age of initial symptoms, including developmental delay, developmental regression, and seizures, were 6 (4, 12) months, 12 (8, 14) months, and 6 (1, 23) months respectively. The onset age of ptosis, extrapyramidal symptoms and ataxia were 26 (18, 44) months, 28 (23, 40) months and 28 (19, 35) months, respectively. There were significant differences in the onset age between the three groups (H=21.919, P=0.01). Within the 35 cases, 29 were manifested with developmental delay (83%), 26 with dystonia (74%), 18 with growth retardation, 15 with myasthenia, 13 with developmental regression, 11 with dysphagia, 10 with feeding difficulties, 4 with skeletal dysplasia, and 2 with digestive tract symptoms; nystagmus and respiratory abnormalities were observed in 9 cases respectively; extrapyramidal symptoms, peripheral nerve injury, ptosis, seizures were observed in 8 cases respectively; and ataxia, ophthalmoplegia and hypertrichiasis were found in 5 cases respectively.The blood lactic acid was measured in 32 LS patients, within which 23 cases (72%) had increased results; 8 out of 11 cases who underwent were cerebrospinal fluid lactic acid test had increased results. The results of neuroimaging revealed that all the patients were involved in the brainstem and (or) basal ganglia, of whom 27 (77%) had brainstem involvement, 24 (69%) had basal ganglia involvement. Thirteen out of 14 patients who had medulla oblongata involvement had nDNA variation; while 7 out of 8 patients with cerebellar involvement had nDNA variation. Genetic etiology was confirmed in all patients, among whom there were 17 cases (49%) with mtDNA mutation, including 8993T>C/G (n=5), 14487T>C (n=4), 13513G>A (n=2), 9176T>C, 10158T>C, 3697G>A, 10191T>C, 14459A>G and 11777C>A (n=1) respectively. Remaining 18 cases(51%) had nDNA mutation, including SURF1 gene(n=10), PDHA1 gene(n=3) and one case each of NDUFV1, NDUFAF6, NDUFAF5, NDUFS1 and COQ7 genes. In this study, 27 types of mutations were founded, 15 of which had not been previously reported. Respiratory chain gene mutations have been found in 31 cases(89%); 3 cases had PDHc gene mutations, and 1 case had other mutation. Conclusion LS usually occurs in infants. The most common primary symptoms are age-dependent abnormal movements, ocular symptoms, and seizures. Respiratory chain defects is the most common causes of LS.SURF1 is the most common variation, followed by 8993T>C/G, 14487 T>C and 13513G>A mutation.

Objective: To summarize the clinical features of Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis (BBE) in children. Methods: In this retrospective study, data of 19 patients with BBE (11 males and 8 females) were collected from Department of Neurology, Beijing Children′s Hospital from October 2015 to January 2018. The clinical features, treatment and prognosis were analyzed. Results: The onset age of BBE ranged from 1 year and 8 months to 12 years and 11 months. There were 18 cases with preceding infection. The most common infection was upper respiratory tract infection (9 cases), followed by simple fever (5 cases). The most common initial neurological symptoms were lethargy or disturbance of consciousness (8 cases), followed by limb weakness (5 cases). There were 6 cases of simple BBE and 13 cases of BBE overlapping Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). Besides the characteristic triad of altered mental status, ataxia, and ophthalmoplegia, there were other symptoms including convulsion (5 cases), diplopia (3 cases), nystagmus (7 cases), facial muscular weakness (7 cases),bulbar palsy (13 cases) and autonomic nerve symptoms (9 cases). Hypo or areflexia was seen in 16 cases. Positive Babinski′s signs were seen in 8 cases. Hyponatremia was present in 10 cases in whom 4 showed severe hyponatremia. Albumin-cytological dissociation of cerebrospinal fluid was seen in 10 cases. The autoimmune antibodies were examined in all 19 patients. Anti-ganglioside antibodies including anti-GM1 IgG antibody was positive in 2 patients and one of whom was also found with positive anti-GD1b IgG antibody. Anti-GQ1b IgG antibody was present in 2 patients. Electromyography was performed in 14 cases and 8 cases, who were all BBE overlapping GBS, showed neurological damage. A total of 16 cases were monitored by video electroencephalography and 8 cases showed slow waves of background. In addition to, interictal focal discharge was detected in 2 cases. T2 fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequence abnormal signals were detected in 3 of 18 cases performed brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and lesions involved with brainstem, basal ganglia, thalamus, cerebellum, corpus callosum and cerebral cortex. Lesions involved cervical and thoracic spinal cord were found in 1 out of 11 cases for whom spinal cord MRI was performed. All of the 4 cases who underwent enhanced MRI of spinal had partial nerve roots enhancement. All of the 19 patients received 1 to 2 courses of intravenous immunoglobulin therapy, and 2 cases also received plasma exchange. Fifteen cases received steroid therapy. The following-up period ranged from 3 months to 2.5 years. Two cases were lost to follow-up. Twelve cases achieved a full recovery within 3 months. Three cases recovered within 6 months. One case still had slight limb weakness and ataxia after 1 year and 8 months of follow-up, and another case had left autonomic nerve symptoms in the follow-up of 2 years and 3 months. Both of them were BBE overlapping GBS. Conclusions Children′s BBE is similar to that in adults, and is frequently found overlapped with GBS. Furthermore, it is sometimes accompanied by central nervous system demyelination disease. The antiganglioside antibodies are not often detectable. Immunoglobulin therapy could usually achieve good response. The prognosis of simple BBE is good in most situations. For BBE overlapping GBS, the more severe the limb weakness during the peak of disease is, the slower the recovery would be.

Objective To characterize fever‐induced paroxysmal weakness and encephalopathy (FIPWE) caused by ATP1A3 gene pathogenic variant. Methods Phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of 4 FIPWE patients(3 boys and 1 girl), who were ascertained from October 2016 to March 2018 in Beijing Children′s Hospital due to ATP1A3 heterozygous variants, were retrospectively analyzed. The whole exsome sequencing was used for genetic testing. Results The onset ages of 4 patients were 2 years and 9 months, 2 years and 4 months, 8 months, 2 years and 5 months respectively. The episode ranged from 1 to 3 times, and at 3 months to 2 years and 10 months intervals. All 4 patients had symptoms of limb weakness and encephalopathy, accompanied with mild to severe ataxia or athetosis. The tendon reflex was absent in all patients, and the Babinski′s sign was positive. Three patients had dysphagia and 3 patients had slurred speech. Three patients had abnormal eye movements, including strabismus and opsoclonus. None of the 4 patients exhibited visual impairment, auditory impairment or talipes cavus. The duration of acute phase ranged from 1 week to 3 months. In 3 relapsing patients, symptoms became progressively worse, with relapses occurring frequently and recovery being more difficult, and various sequelae were found after the last relapse. All patients carried heterozygous variant in ATP1A3 gene. The missense variants result in the substitution of an arginine residue at position 756. Three variants were identified, including C. 2267G>T (p. R756L) (1 case), C. 2266C>T (p. R756C) (2 cases), and C. 2267G>A (p. R756H) (1 case). Three were de novo and one inherited from his father, but the grandparents did not carry the variant. All variants were reported as pathogenic. Conclusions FIPWE is one of new clinical phenotypes of ATP1A3 spectrum disease and most cases are sporadic. The missense variants result in the substitution of an arginine residue at position 756. This report provided insights into the phenotype‐genotype association in patients with FIPWE caused by pathogenic variants of ATP1A3.

Objective:To summarize the clinical data of patients with acute pandysautonomia (APD) and discuss the treatment and prognosis of them.Methods:A total of 13 patients with APD in the Department of Neurology, Beijing Children′s Hospital, Capital Medical University, from January 2010 to December 2019, were investigated retrospectively.The general data, clinical symptoms, autonomic nerve examination and function test, laboratory examination, treatment and follow-up were collected and analyzed.Results:There were 4 males and 9 females in 13 patients with APD, with an average age was 8 years and 5 months (3 years and 8 months to 12 years and 5 months ). The average course of disease was 94.5 d (14-410 d). The common initial symptoms were gastrointestinal motility disorder (11 cases), dysuria (3 cases), and upright syncope/vertigo (3 cases). During the course of the disease, all the patients manifested with gastrointestinal motility disfunction and dyshidrosis, glands involvement and orthostatic hypotension in 12 cases, abnormal pupil in 9 case and urinary retention in 7 case.Other symptoms included fatigue in 9 cases, emotional disorder in 4 cases, limb weakness in 2 cases, and sensory disturbance in 2 cases.All the patients were treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), and 3 cases combined with glucocorticoid.Six patients with severe gastrointestinal symptoms were treated with intravenous nutrition; 4 patients were fed with jejunum, 3 cases of whom returned to normal diet within 1-12 months, and 1 patient was followed up for 5 years and 2 months.Hyponatremia was found in 7 cases, which recovered in 2-30 d. Nine cases were followed up for 1 month to 9 years.Seven cases were normal in daily work and study, with satisfactory nutritional status, stable mood and no relapse.Conclusions:The clinical manifestations of APD are varied.The initial symptoms are gastrointestinal motility disorders, orthostatic hypotension, urinary retention and hyponatremia.Individualized multi-disciplinary comprehensive management for symptoms, especially the comprehensive treatment of gastrointestinal motility disorders, management of postural hypotension, and the urinary system diagnosis and individualized treatment of can shorten the length of hospital stay and improve the prognosis effectively.